AWS announces new investments in APJ

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made several announcements that demonstrate its long-term commitment to the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, and its understanding of what is important to its customers. The company has shared, via a blog post, plans to expand AWS Local Zones in APJ and extend investments in infrastructure and digital skills in the region.

In the blog post, AWS noted that the need for low latency – the time it takes for data to pass from one point on a network to another – has become even more critical in the region. Ten new AWS Local Zones in six countries across APJ will be rolled out to facilitate single-digit millisecond latency, across Australia (Brisbane and Perth), India (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata), New Zealand (Auckland), the Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok), and Vietnam (Hanoi). AWS Local Zones place AWS compute, storage, database, and other services closer to customers, and are managed and supported by AWS.

The AWS global infrastructure spans over 26 geographic regions and 84 Availability Zones (AZs) across the globe. This includes AWS Regions in Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, and Jakarta and further investments planned in Auckland and Hyderabad, and Melbourne.

"We are committed to helping local economies unlock the potential of the cloud by deepening our local investments with the rollout of new cloud infrastructure – giving local governments and business of all sizes, and across all industries, the ability to tap into the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform," stated AWS in the blog post.

Recent research conducted by AlphaBeta and commissioned by AWS, reveals that the need for advanced cloud computing and data skills in APJ is expected to triple by 2025 – the greatest increase forecast across all digital skill competencies. AWS has already trained 2.5 million people in cloud skills across APJ since 2017, and will commit to further help upskill workers and enable the transition to a digital-first economy.

The new initiatives include the launch of AWS Skill Builder – a new digital learning experience, the addition of AWS courses to the Amazon.com website, the expansion of the AWS re/Start global reskilling programme, and the opening of the AWS Skills Center – Amazon’s first dedicated, in-person cloud learning space.

On the sustainability front, a report by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, found that computing in the cloud is five times more energy efficient than on-premises data centres in the Asia Pacific Region (APAC) – including in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and India – and moving computing workloads from on-premises data centres to the cloud can reduce organisations’ carbon footprint by more than 78%.

In line with commitments to reach net zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, Amazon said that it is on-path to power its global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. The company's ongoing investments in renewable energy include projects in Australia and Singapore.

The Singapore project is a 62 MW solar project made up of a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system. When complete in 2022, the project will be among the largest aggregated moveable solar energy systems designed and installed in Singapore, and it will contribute net-new renewable energy to the national electricity grid, the company said.

Amazon also has three wind and solar projects in Australia (the Hawkesdale Wind Farm in Victoria; and the Gunnedah Solar Farm and Suntop Solar Farm in New South Wales). Together, these projects in APJ contribute around 346 MW of installed capacity and will supply more than 800,000 MWh of additional renewable energy to local electricity grids.