Introducing Tamkeen Technologies, our new Saudi-based partner!

system · February 16, 2021, 10:35am

Originally published at: Introducing Tamkeen Technologies, our new Saudi-based partner! - Nextcloud

Meet Tamkeen Technologies

Tamkeen Technologies is a Saudi company established in 2013 with a clear and ambitious vision to be the first choice for the government sector in IT. Their innovative solutions are designed to digitally transform the businesses of the public sector by adopting leading technologies, and leveraging on their strategic partnerships. Tamkeen Technologies’ services are formed to fit various modules and to ensure self-sustainability, improve performance and efficiency for their partners.

Tamkeen Technologies’ services

More than 4 dozen customers, mostly governmental institutions, in Saudi Arabia trust Tamkeen Technologies to help them solve their IT challenges by providing IT consultancy, application development, managed & professional services, cyber/information security & infrastructure services and cloud services using Nextcloud.

Tamkeen Technologies are partnering with other local SMEs to deliver the best quality of services possible to their customers while aligning with national & sectorial strategies, driven by Saudi Vision 2030

By no coincidence, Tamkeen Technologies is awarded as the best place to work at, in 2 consecutive years.

Why Saudi organizations choose Tamkeen Technologies:

CMMI Level 3 certified
TMMI Level 3 certified
Level 3 Data Center service provider
Certified in ISO for:
- Process quality
- Business continuity
- Security
- Service management
Dedicated incident response team for security
Internal penetration testing team
Self-owned dedicated Customer Care
24/7 support available

The idea of deploying Nextcloud started as a customer need and became a service in 2019. Organizations needed to move to the cloud, store data on the cloud and be able to access files from anywhere while keeping the information secure in data centers within Saudi Arabia.

Nextcloud was the clear solution for our customers’ needs. They are very satisfied with the tool and our services providing it, of course!

A Self-Sustainable Business Model

Tamkeen’s partnering model is built around the government’s needs.

We believe in the power of successful collaborations, with our focus on reaching the desired outcome in a timely, cost-effective, scalable and a reliable manner!

At Tamkeen, they value the open-source nature of Nextcloud and other software in general, as an inspiration to bring more innovation in IT.

They believe that open-source solutions provide greater agility for a constantly changing future.

If Tamkeen Technologies is offering what you are looking for, contact them through their website!

Contact Tamkeen Technologies

peteman52 · February 16, 2021, 10:46am

Good to know Tamkeen is deeply connected with the murderous regime of Saudi-Arabia.

Halle_Luja · February 16, 2021, 10:57am

hhmmm…

Any conflict with the mission and principles of Nextcloud?

I see a lot, so the question arises what the mission and principles are worth or whether the Nextcloud GmbH bends them when money is involved.

Imho a company mainly serving the authorities of Saudi Arabia is a company supporting and aiding in oppression and murder. And as Nextcloud happily announces it’s collaboration with the company it happily announces the support of oppression and murder.

antoine · February 16, 2021, 11:25am

Yes, it is also quite uplifting to read that " Tamkeen Technologies are partnering with other local SMEs to deliver the best quality of services possible to their customers while aligning with national & sectorial strategies, driven by Saudi Vision 2030", and that this vision " also consists of increasing government spending on the military, as well as manufacturing equipment and ammunition."

I guess it is possible that some people are interested in receiving such messages, so could we have two distinct mailing lists, one for messages about Nextcloud and one for such advertising?

szaimen · February 16, 2021, 11:28am

Maybe the Nextcloud GmbH wasn’t aware of those crimes?
cc @jospoortvliet

nomad · February 16, 2021, 2:45pm

I don’t think so. Nextcloud is no indie open source company, Nextcloud is typical corporate capitalist, all their communication and marketing smell corporate culture, so in this sense such advertising or spammy messages in the forum should not come as surprise

minority · February 16, 2021, 3:02pm

Yes, it really seems that Nextcloud lost its morale and let got of its principles.
It is of course open source software so they can’t do anything about people/companies/states using it. Nor should they try to change that. But partnering with such companies and regimes is really not OK.

This does make me wonder what kind of direct customers they have.
Does nextcloud screen its customer on human rights track records?

On top of that I wonder how they can justify working with such companies and also run programs like Nextcloud Include

minority · February 16, 2021, 3:22pm

@jospoortvliet What? Are you now trying to hide this by making sure less people see it?

minority · February 16, 2021, 4:01pm

So. It has been over 5 hours since the first reply. And also since the first ping to @jospoortvliet (who is “Director Marketing” according to Meet the Nextcloud team ). Will there be a reply from Nextcloud regarding this?

So apparently I can’t post more replied for whatever reason.
So here comes an edit.

Nobody is questioning that. However what you are doing here is actively setting up and promoting a partnership.

I’d like to see sources on that. “a representative from a human rights organization” sounds like somebody we known that did an internship at Human Rights Watch.

So just to be clear. You draw the line at manufacturing weapons? So a company that itself claims it mainly supplies the Saudi Government is fine? Because I seem to remember there being a lot of issues not to long ago with a chopped up journalist? However I can see that escalate into the discussion that nobody is truly innocent and western countries and companies do bad stuff to.

Their track record against minorities, LGBTQ, women in general etc. is just horrific. They rank consistently low on human rights in general. Still you chose to partner up while at the same time promoting include?

Out of curiosity what is exactly in the contract that you explicitly forbid?

I’m sorry but this statement and the trying to unlist this post seems like you just want it to go away. (I seem to remember there also was a tweet I can no longer find).

Now Nextcloud is a private company so it can do as it pleases. But don’t try to spin this as we are doing eerything we can.

How is that relevant to the topic here. This is the nextcloud forum so we should discuss what Nextcloud is doing.

That is one way to look at it.
However I expect a lot more from a company that wants (to quote Frank) ‘a little bit better’. And has big words about privacy, freedom and inclusion.

jospoortvliet · February 16, 2021, 4:36pm

Hi,

we really appreciate the feedback we got from you, as it made clear that the practice of our customers is an important point not only for us, but for the community as well.

We as an open source company & community work to provide software that enables anyone to regain control over their data. The open source licenses explicitly allow anyone to use them for any purpose, which is at the core of our mission.

At the same time, we have internal policies around organizations we do not work with, like companies primarily active in weapons manufacturing. Our contracts include clauses that forbid the use of our software in surveillance or other unethical use cases, something recommended to us by a representative from a human rights organization.

We constantly re-evaluate these internal policies and contract clauses, and have regular internal discussions about the values and mission of our organization and how it relates to our customers. Your comments are very helpful in this process.

RdedR · February 16, 2021, 6:09pm

Not saying it is a great country (same for China), but we are still buying oil there and everyone appears to be ok with that. Haven’t seen any boycott or protests about the major gas companies lately or the massive Chinese imports of cheap goods everyone is buying, In both case you are supporting those governments.

Let’s keep this real. I believe trading and services should be possible as long as the contracts are solid, ethical and as long it is not illegal to trade on either side. I think Nextcloud got this right but needs to keep reviewing the situation regularly.

Halle_Luja · February 16, 2021, 8:32pm

Seriously, what is this about the unlisting? Any comment on that reaction, @jospoortvliet ?

And, even more seriously: If the line is not crossed in this case, in which one will it be crossed? How far is the Nextcloud GmbH going in order to make money?

The open source license is really important as a reference and comes with ethical tensions as probably everyone knows. And that’s where the ethics of the actors is coming in. Or not. It’s sad the mission and principles are getting sold this way.

As can be easily read on the internet, Saudi Arabia is well known for crimes against humanity.
And your great new partner is a semi-governmental entity. So, what will be the next:
Nextcloud cooperates with a company of Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin or -just to give an example of a German racist- Björn Höcke? I guess you get the point.

Halle_Luja · February 16, 2021, 8:40pm

Just a quick check on what states your great new partner on its website:

##### Vision

To be the preferred IT Service partner for the governmental Sectors

##### Mission

To deliver innovative solutions by utilizing top talent, adopting leading technological capabilities and leveraging on strategic partnerships to help our customers achieve their goals.

So they underline their priority to support the governmental action. This line now stretches directly to the Nextcloud GmbH, Hauptmannsreute 44a, 70192 Stuttgart. I’m considering bringing word of some of these actions into this forum and I see it as legit as they can -and should- be valued as supported by the Nextcloud GmbH.

It might sound pathetic but we’re talking about the support a murdering dictatorship.
So, sorry, but: shame on you.

just · February 16, 2021, 11:54pm

Military Industry - plan for Saudi Vision 2030:

“Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 acknowledged that KSA manufactures less than 5% of its military requirements. This prompted the target to grow local industry contribution 10-fold by 2030… enable 50% localization of the Kingdom’s military spending by 2030.”

Halle_Luja · February 17, 2021, 11:40am

Now I’m blocked by the Nextcloud GmbH on Twitter.

What’s the strategy behind this?

https://help.nextcloud.com/t/welcoming-nextclouds-head-of-strategy-mitzi-laszlo/108154/2?u=halle_luja

j-ed · February 17, 2021, 12:01pm

Are you sure that you’ve been blocked by Nextcloud GmbH and not by Twitter? Nowadays you can read on a daily base that people are blocked because of automatic Twitter filters.

Halle_Luja · February 17, 2021, 12:03pm

Thanks for the hint, not sure about that.

I was umblocked a couple of minutes later and had to re-like @Nextclouders.

The tweet itself disappeared…

jospoortvliet · February 17, 2021, 12:18pm

I don’t know why you were blocked, I can imagine whomever blocked you considered your tweet a troll post - I haven’t seen it. Or, as j-ed said, perhaps an automated thing. But going ahead and complaining in other unrelated blogs about it because you want attention is NOT OK, I deleted that post and if you do that again I’ll block you. It’s fine to discuss things here if you really want but don’t go and escalate it because people don’t agree with you (and I don’t, for the record, but I won’t go and have a fight about it as that just makes things worse and waste everyone’s time).