Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday announced the launch of SMB Vidyalaya, a technology upskilling programme to help Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) digitise their operations and offerings by using AWS Cloud. SMB Vidyalaya packs in over 50 technology education modules tailored for SMBs and the opportunities they have in order to drive business growth.

AWS has also expanded its Amazon Digital Suite, a curated set of software solutions developed with local third-party technology providers, which enables India's SMBs to quickly and easily digitise operations and bring their businesses to the internet.

Announcing the initiative at a virtual briefing, AWS said the SMB Vidyalaya is available to small and medium businesses through a hybrid training model, which bundles online and in-person channels.

AWS is working with SMB-focused associations like the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME) that will help drive awareness for the programme with SMBs across India through downloadable product brochures, educational course videos, and webinars.

It also plans to arm local professionals with AWS product training and courseware.

"Cloud education is key to the success of India's large and diverse SMB market, and SMB Vidyalaya will help SMBs understand the business benefits of digital transformation and enable faster implementation together with AWS and our partners," Puneet Chandok, President of Commercial Business, AWS India and South Asia at AISPL (Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd), said.

SMB Vidyalaya is a comprehensive educational programme addressing a variety of SMB digital needs, and helps to expand cloud skills and technology adoption to a wider audience across the country, Chandok added.

As a widely adopted cloud offering, AWS has been continually expanding its services to support cloud workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, among others.