Amazon Web Services has now formally announced the deployment of its AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region which will bring about a paradigm change in the Asia Pacific cloud territory, an NZ7.5 billion nirvana of data residency capacity and a significantly decreased latency time on the global stage by Kiwi businesses, and the networking of more than 1,000 new jobs and establishing New Zealand as the strategic digital centre.
New Zealand is making its digital infrastructure possible through AWS
The AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region has officially been introduced by Amazon Web Services, one of the largest investments the company will make in operations in the country, with over NZD 7.5 bn to build and operate new data centres throughout. The development opens up to New Zealand customers a high-quality local presence of cloud infrastructure and provides the capability to reduce latency and achieve local data residency needs.
According to Prasad Kalyanaraman, AWS Vice President of Infrastructure Services, the new AWS Region in New Zealand will assist in meeting the increased demand for cloud services in the nation and allow organisations of all sizes to accelerate their digital transformation efforts.
Amazon projects that the new AWS Region will contribute approximately NZ$10.8 bn to the GDP of New Zealand over time and generate over 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs each year, notably in such fields as engineering, telecommunications, and data centre operations. Upon initial release, AWS Asia Pacific Region (New Zealand) has 3 Availability Zones, all configured with autonomous power, cooling, and physical security in addition to being connected through low-latency networks to facilitate high-availability workload.
Why is this an unmatched economic opportunity for New Zealand
It is big, not only in terms of size, but it is what New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, would deem it to be. It is a bet on New Zealand as a business destination, to innovate, to create, and to invest long-term. Graeme Muller, CEO of NZ Tech, says that the introduction of the AWS Region in New Zealand is a thrilling event.
Why is the fresh interest in renewable energy by AWS so important?
The new AWS Region will operate on renewable energy starting day one, which includes an agreement between Amazon and Mercury NZ on the Turitea South wind farm. This effort is part of Amazon’s company-wide effort toward achieving net-zero carbon by 2040 as part of The Climate Pledge. According to AWS, the infrastructure of its system is engineered with high energy efficiency when compared to the old on-premises IT. Accenture estimates in a report that AWS is as much as 4.1 times effective than enterprise data centres.
The advantages of sovereign cloud to the local businesses
Existing organisations that have been using AWS in New Zealand are AMP New Zealand, Kiwibank, New Zealand Post, One New Zealand, TVNZ, University of Auckland, and Wellington City Council. Sharesies and other startups like TradeMe and Xero are using AWS infrastructure as well. Other partners in New Zealand are Accenture, Datacom, Deloitte, The Instillery, and CyberCX, who assist enterprise and government clients with migration and digital transformation efforts.
The new AWS Region contributes to new infrastructure milestones in New Zealand, such as Amazon CloudFront edge facilities opened in Auckland in 2020, an AWS Direct Connect facility in Auckland in 202,3, and an AWS Local Zone, which has offered low-latency services.
With an enduring commitment to renewable energy and combined with massive infrastructures, AWS is making New Zealand an excellent location to digitalize. Not only is the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region a deployment of technological infrastructure, but it also embodies New Zealand’s aspirations to achieve digital sovereignty and economic transformation by providing local businesses with access to global cloud computing services and the retention of data within the country.