It was made known last year that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expected to make a major investment in Malaysia after receiving approval by the previous government. Albeit later than initially planned, the Amazon subsidiary today officially announced that it will launch its first Infrastructure Region in the country, and is expected to invest US$ 6 billion (~RM 25.5 billion) by 2037 as part of its commitment to the project.
AWS says the aim of establishing an Infrastructure Region is to provide developers, startups, entrepreneurs, enterprises, education, non-profit organisations, as well as the local government greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from its data centres. In its press release, the company noted that organisations in Malaysia are among the millions of active customers in more than 190 countries around the world, relying on its service to innovate, drive cost efficiencies, and accelerate time to market-segment.
Hello Malaysia! A new #AWS Region is coming to #Malaysia. What will you build with the world’s most comprehensive & broadly adopted cloud platform? Learn more about the AWS Region in Malaysia here.https://t.co/XFSIs9cL0f#cloudcomputing pic.twitter.com/EEKd52HNWW
— AWS Cloud SEAsia (@AWSCloudSEAsia) March 2, 2023
The Infrastructure Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch, adding to its existing 99 zones across 31 geographic regions globally. Its establishment will enable customers with data residency preferences to store data securely in Malaysia, while at the same time enjoying lower latency as well as serve demand for cloud services across Southeast Asia. Along with the planned launch in Malaysia, the company is also aiming to establish 15 more Availability Zones and five more AWS Regions in Canada, New Zealand, and Thailand.
AWS Regions consist of zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations, with enough distance to significantly reduce the risk of a single event impacting customers’ business continuity, yet near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones. In addition, each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low latency networks.
We’re expanding in Southeast Asia, with plans for a new #AWS Region in Malaysia. We will be able to help customers store data securely in Malaysia and meet the growing demand for world-class cloud services in the region. https://t.co/eyJJINXPNq pic.twitter.com/mH2bjybUlg
— Adam Selipsky (@aselipsky) March 2, 2023
Via an official statement, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that AWS has committed to the largest international technology investment in Malaysia to date, which in turn will help advance the Malaysia Madani vision of a highly skilled, innovative, prosperous and sustainable economy. “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,” he added.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services Vice President of Infrastructure Services stated that the company is looking forward to helping Malaysian institutions, startups, and companies to deliver cloud-powered applications via its data centres. “We are proud to support Malaysia’s digital transformation with the highest levels of security and reliability available on AWS cloud infrastructure,” he said.
(Source: AWS press release / official blog)
