Global cloud giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of an AWS Infrastructure Region in Malaysia and a $6 billion injection by 2037, responding to demand for more cloud services across Southeast Asia.
The new region in Malaysia will be initially comprised of three Availability Zones, the latest to join the existing 99 zones across 31 global regions, with future plans to launch 15 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Canada, Israel, New Zealand and Thailand.
The zones serve to host infrastructure in separate geographic locations with enough distance between them to lower the risk of an event that affects customers’ entire “business continuity” but is also close enough to provide “low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones”.
Malaysia’s new AWS Region will facilitate better and more secure data storage with lower latency, and provide customers ranging from startups and enterprises to government organisations and non-profits to access AWS’ services including analytics, compute, database, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, mobile services, storage and other cloud technologies.
“AWS has committed to the largest international technology investment to date in Malaysia, which will advance our Malaysia Madani vision of a highly skilled, innovative, prosperous, and sustainable economy,” Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, said.
“Bringing access to world-class AWS infrastructure, advanced technologies and cloud skills programs to Malaysia will unlock opportunities for local businesses of all sizes to build and expand globally, cultivate a highly skilled workforce, spur new job creation and deliver long-term economic growth.
“Today’s announcement is a vote of support for Malaysia’s leadership in the global digital economy, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration with AWS to advance our nation’s cloud-first ambitions.”
“The new AWS Region reflects our deep and long-term commitment to customers and organizations in Malaysia, as well as our commitment to serving sizeable and fast-growing demand for cloud services across Southeast Asia. We are proud to support Malaysia’s digital transformation with the highest levels of security and reliability available on AWS cloud infrastructure,” Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS, said.
“We look forward to helping Malaysian institutions, startups, and companies deliver cloud-powered applications to fuel economic development across the country and to spur job creation, skills training and educational opportunities in the communities surrounding our data centres.”
Existing Malaysian customers of AWS include Malaysia Berhad, Axiata Group, Bank Islam Malaysia, CelcomDigi, Johor Corporation, PayNet and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS). Malaysian public sector customers of AWS include Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, BeEducation, Cybersecurity Malaysia, Department of Statistics Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Pos Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Malaysian startups that use AWS include Baba Products, Carsome, Omesti Berhad and StoreHub.