Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that it will be investing RM25.5 billion in Malaysia to develop its cloud services infrastructure in the country. The cloud computing arm of Amazon has announced its plan to set up an AWS Region in Malaysia with 3 availability zones.
With the new AWS Region based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysians can expect faster access to AWS services to run their apps and store data securely from the cloud. The latest announcement is part of AWS’ move to strengthen its AWS Infrastructure Regions across Southeast Asia. Last year, the company announced plans to set up an AWS Region in Thailand with an estimated investment of THB 190 billion (about RM24.4 billion).
Commenting on the announcement, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said “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.”
“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,” he added.
AWS’ Vice President of Infrastructure Services Prasad Kalyanaraman said “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.”
The new AWS Region in Malaysia will consist of 3 Availability Zones which adds to their existing 99 Availability Zones across 31 geographic regions worldwide. AWS has plans to launch 15 more Availability Zones and 5 more AWS Regions in Canada, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand and Thailand. For Southeast Asia, AWS launched its AWS Region in Singapore back in 2010, followed by Jakarta in 2021.
According to AWS, its network of availability zones places infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to significantly reduce the impact of a single point of failure on customers’ business continuity, while providing low latency for high-availability applications. Each zone is equipped with independent power, cooling and physical security, and is connected through redundant, ultra-low latency networks. AWS customers that require high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones and across multiple regions for greater fault tolerance.
Some of AWS’ notable customers in Malaysia include Astro, Axiata, Bank Islam, CelcomDigi, Johor Corporation, Paynet, Petronas, Pos Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional Berhad.
As part of its sustainability efforts, Amazon says they are committed to achieving net-zero carbon across its business by 2040 and it aims to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, which is 5 years ahead of the target. Amazon said it has set a new corporate record for the most renewable energy announced by a single company in one year and it remains the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy. It has 401 renewal energy projects globally including 164 wind farms and solar farms, and 237 rooftop solar projects on Amazon facilities. Once fully operational, Amazon’s renewal energy projects are expected to generate 56,881 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean energy yearly. AWS also aims to be water positive by 2030, which will return more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations.
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