By
Lee Tokouzis
Director of OperationsJohn Roese, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dell Technologies, discussed in a recent teleconference the open prospects and great potential that Greece has to attract foreign workers and companies in the field of technology and informatics.
“I think that I will easily work from an island in Greece. It is a very beautiful country.
As an employer, I am interested in the talent that I can find in my employees in Greece. It is also important for me that this country has networking infrastructure and a wider technology ecosystem that allows remote work.”
The virtual conference took place earlier in January 2021 and was held by top executives from Dell’s headquarters, with a representative from each European country. During the discussion about which countries could become Dell’s next base for further technological developments in 2021, Mr. Roese talked about his interest in Greece and presented the country as his top choice.
The CTO of the 3rd biggest computer company in the world – only behind Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard – emphasised on how the global COVID-19 pandemic worked as an accelerator for technological advancements in Greece.
“It is worth mentioning that many Greek businesses adopted the new online and remote working landscape very quickly and the new tech status quo was assimilated smoothly by the wider social masses,” Mr Roese explained.
The Dell executives also turned their attention to the fact that Greece completed the licensing of 5G networks last year, while a few months ago Microsoft also announced the creation of a regional data centre in Athens, which is expected to highly upgrade the country’s IT infrastructure.
“We need cutting edge computing in Greece, where data is processed by the device itself or by a local computer or server, instead of being transmitted to a data centre, but we need all that to be accessible and reliable,” Mr Roese stressed to Dell’s team of leaders.
The move of yet another large company to Greece not only helps in the country’s overall technological progress and its economy, but it also creates thousands of new jobs for talented individuals and professionals.
Technological infrastructure together with the culture and talent of a country, but also the legal and regulatory framework, are factors that determine the attractiveness of the country to become a new place of work, according to Dell’s executives.
“Things have changed, and the work conditions have changed. People do not need to be in a specific location anymore to find work, so we are looking for talent anywhere in the world, and this will soon be a reality for all the big companies that will disconnect work from an employee’s place of residence,” Mr. Roese stated.
“Before the pandemic, 20% of our employees worked from remote locations. After the pandemic, we expect this percentage to be at 50%. Well, we believe that a number of them could be in Greece,” he added.
Adrian McDonald, president of Dell Technologies for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, also commented on Greece’s potential to become the next tech base for Dell and praised the country’s accelerated adoption of technology throughout the consecutive lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.
“As for Greece, it has become clear that top professionals from around the world will soon be digital nomads in the country. Greek people will work from their country for employers located in Europe, America or anywhere in the world. This will be a significant change in the geography of employment that technological development will bring, and where Greece can have a prominent position, combining its natural beauties and climate with its technological infrastructure,” he mentioned.
Space X and Tesla satellite network projects in Greece, CISCO’s Digital Transformation Centre in Thessaloniki and TeamViewer’s Research & Development Hub at Ioannina, are also some of the big technological investments that have recently been announced, placing Greece on the map of intriguing digital developments and making the country a remarkable case of digital transformation efforts.