Startups are often considered as the change agents that inspire markets to evolve. And with their resourceful and resilient ability to quickly adapt, many are looking to this sector to play a crucial role in reviving Bangladesh's economy.
At the same time, they are one of the most impacted areas of the economy. Cash-strapped and needing to adapt rapidly to new and different ways of working, many are looking to cloud-based, digital technologies that are cost-effective and quick to put in place to help them become resilient and tackle the prevailing challenges.
To help extend the support needed by Bangladesh's growing startup ecosystem, Oracle Bangladesh provided free access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure software and organized training for more than 500 startups under a national initiative run by the Ministry of ICT - Bangladesh.
'ACT COVID' - Call for Nation program aimed to help startups to address current business challenges by gathering innovative ideas and business solutions from talented innovators, scientists, and software engineers. It provided support from ideation to the final product/solution by giving logistical support, funding, and access to experts and mentors.
As Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for ICT - Bangladesh, said, "The world is experiencing difficult times, and we need to leverage our nation's brilliant minds to help address our current challenges. Oracle's Cloud offering provided our innovators access to world-class software as well as hands-on training through webinars to enable them to how best leverage technology to rebuild Bangladesh's economy during these testing times."
For participants who successfully registered for this programme, Oracle offered free access to Oracle Cloud and its learning resources. Additionally, these startups received a range of benefits as follows:
* US$500 Free Trial Credit, along with Always Free Cloud Services to start building on Oracle Cloud;
* Hands-on training through four webinars to highlight Oracle's cloud offerings. This allowed the startups to experience the Oracle Cloud Platform and collaborate with the Oracle Cloud Experts and Architects;
* Free access to Oracle Online Learning, where they learn about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and the industry-standard practices being adopted; and
* An opportunity for some of the participants to get short listed to highlight their innovation at future Oracle event or a seminar.
Sayed Golam Yamur Abdullah, Founder, Antt Robotics Ltd., was a participant of the initiative who had the chance to experience Oracle Cloud. "As a startup, we aim to increase productivity, quality, and deliver our products to more users. However, building solutions on top of a modern cloud platform has always been a challenge. With Oracle offering free trial credit to build products on top of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, we do not have to worry about the cost. That was a great gift."
"Gaining access to a wide range of Oracle Cloud features during the initiative has been very useful," Kanji Fatema Tamanna, Founder, Swacho Team said. "It was a great experience to participate in the webinars conducted by Oracle, where we had the opportunity to speak with Oracle's experienced cloud evangelists. We gained some great learning and took full advantage of this opportunity."
Oracle Cloud is a second-generation enterprise cloud that delivers powerful compute and networking performance and includes a comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure and platform cloud services. Built from the ground up to meet the needs of mission-critical applications. Oracle Cloud is the only one made to run Oracle Autonomous Database, the industry's first and only self-driving database. Oracle Cloud offers a comprehensive cloud computing portfolio, from application development and business analytics to data management, integration, security, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain.
Although the 'ACT COVID' - Call for Nation is a separate startup initiative, Oracle has a global startup program 'Oracle for Startups' that supports startups and innovators worldwide so they can continue to do what they do best - innovate. The programme, which offers numerous technology and business-building resources, has witnessed how the relationship between startups and the enterprise is mutually beneficial and can be a driving force for innovation and global commerce.
Oracle is delighted to share industry-standard practices and learning with these talented and innovative participants, and hope these startups will be able to leverage the Oracle Cloud platform to help them innovate, enabling them to come out stronger and sounder than before. Join Oracle today to start building your startup on Oracle Cloud with free cloud credits, mentorship, and enterprise connection.
The writer is the Country Managing Director of Oracle Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]
