Google will invest in Costa del Sol. The tech giant will invest 650 million dollars during the next five years in Spain to accelerate the digital transition, part of which will be used to build a 2.500 sqm cybersecurity centre in Malaga.
The Google centre will be located at Paseo de la Farola and it will offer training, lectures, workshops and tutorials about cybersecurity, along with product investigation and development, as informed by the company in a release.
Colliers will be in charge of the building’s project and construction managemen. The asset hasn’t been used in more than 2 decades and it will need a full refurbishment.
With this investment, the company expects to establish the first Google Cloud Region in Spain, announced in collaboration with Telefónica and also the first underwater private cable from Google to connect Spain to the United Kingdom, which will allow Spanish companies and Public administrations to accelerate their transition and deploy the cloud services’ potential with low latency and high performance. Fuencisla Clemares, in charge of Google Iberia, informed Nadia Calviño, third vice-chair and minister of Economic and Digital Transition Affairs for the Spanish Government, the group’s intention of boosting the digital transition in Spain. «The Cloud Region, along with the underwater cable, in cooperation with local partners, will allow for the private and public sectors to become more scalable and efficient in their businesses», pointed out Fuencisla Clemares, in charge of Google in Spain.
«There is no doubt that the opening of this new cybersecurity centre of excellence in Malaga, will strengthen the growth in innovation and prepare our society to face a key challenge for digitisation as is cybersecurity, he added. Google had already carried out other investments in Costa del Sol. In 2012, the company acquired Malaga’s start-up Virus Total and its team is «under constant cooperation with the University of Malaga to encourage the ecosystem, and it will now develop its work within this centre of excellence for cybersecurity», advised the company. The new Google Centre of Excellence for Security is a project equivalent to the centre for artificial intelligence announced for Milan or the cloud centre of excellence in India.