Amazon Web Services opens first office in Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) - Amazon Inc's cloud computing division opened its first office in Greece on Friday to support what it said was a growing number of companies and public sector agencies using its cloud services.

The move by Amazon Web Services (AWS) comes as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's conservative government has stepped up efforts to attract foreign investment and draw high tech companies to Greece.

"We have seen increased customer adoption of AWS in the country and decided to open an office in Athens to better support new customers," Przemek Szuder, the head of AWS operations in central and eastern Europe said in a statement.

No financial details were disclosed.

AWS already provides cloud computing services to companies and organisations in Greece including telecoms group Wind Hellas, PAOK FC, one of Greece's top football clubs, and a number of public sector organisations, the group said.

It said services covered areas from big data analytics and mobile, web and social media applications to enterprise business applications and the internet of things.

In October, when Microsoft Corp announced plans to build a data centre hub in Greece, Mitsotakis said the country could become a world cloud computing hub.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie. Editing by Mark Potter)