Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced the launch of the first AWS Local Zones location in Australia, in Perth. AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that places AWS compute, storage, database, and other services near large population, industry, and IT centers—enabling customers to deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latency to end users or on-premises data centers.
What does this mean for the region?
For applications that require single-digit millisecond latency, the location of cloud infrastructure matters. Most customer workloads run in an AWS Region, a geographic location where AWS clusters data centers to serve customers. However, when an AWS Region is not close enough to meet low latency or data residency preferences, customers need Amazon Web Services infrastructure closer to their data source or end users.
Firms have maintained these location-sensitive workloads on premises or in managed data centers that require clients to procure, operate, and maintain their own IT infrastructure, and use different sets of APIs and tools for their on-premises and AWS environments.
AWS manages and supports AWS Local Zones, meaning clients do not incur the expense and effort of procuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure in various cities to support low latency applications. AWS Local Zones can also help companies migrate additional workloads to AWS, supporting a hybrid cloud migration strategy and simplifying IT operations.
“Amazon Web Services’ investment to launch its first Australian AWS Local Zones location in Perth is a big win for Western Australian organizations and the economy,” said the Hon. Stephen Dawson, Western Australian Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy.
“An AWS Local Zones location in Perth opens up more opportunities for Western Australian businesses to innovate and develop new services enabling better experiences for their customers and our citizens. Having world-class cloud infrastructure here in Perth will drive our state’s innovation agenda and strengthen the diversification of our economy. We’re pleased that AWS’s continued investment in our state supports the next generation of innovators.”
The launch in Perth gives clients the ability to deploy apps close to end users in the metro area. Having AWS Local Zones close to large population centers in metro areas enables clients to achieve the low latency required for use cases like video analytics, online gaming, virtual workstations, live streaming, remote healthcare, and augmented and virtual reality.
They can also help clients in regulated sectors like healthcare, financial services, mining and resources, and public sector that prefer to keep data within a geographic boundary.
What does the facility mean for AWS?
“We are pleased to deepen our investments in Western Australia by bringing the first Australian AWS Local Zones location to Perth,” commented Sarah Bassett, Head of Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland Enterprise at Amazon Web Services Australia.
“Speed matters in business, and we’ve designed AWS Local Zones to deliver low latency capabilities for firms to improve the performance of their digital applications, process large amounts of data faster, and drive productivity gains. The launch of AWS Local Zones location in Perth is a continuation of our investment to support firms running all types of workloads by bringing secure, extensive, and reliable cloud infrastructure closer to our customers.”
The launch of AWS Local Zones location in Perth is the newest addition to AWS infrastructure in Australia, including the AWS APAC (Sydney) Region, 7 Amazon CloudFront edge locations, 6 AWS Direct Connect locations, and the announced AWS APAC (Melbourne) Region.
What do the regional organizations stand to gain?
Customers can run workloads with low latency requirements on AWS Local Zones while connecting to the rest of their workloads running in AWS Regions. AWS now has 29 AWS Local Zones worldwide, with announced plans to launch 23 more AWS Local Zones globally, including a location in Brisbane. To get started with AWS Local Zones, visit the website.
Curtin University
Curtin University is a public research university, based in Perth, that supports over 50,000 students. “Curtin University is on a journey to build a cloud-based platform, powered by AWS, to enable us to move out of our on-campus data centers to ensure we can take full advantage of digital services,” said Jason Cowie, Chief Information Officer, Curtin University.
“Flexibility is key in delivering the services that our staff and students require. An AWS Local Zones location in Perth gives us more choice in where we host our workloads – whether to bring cloud closer to our students using AWS Local Zones or supporting large-scale IT migrations across our campuses using the AWS Region in Sydney. This brings us one step closer to operating 100% on AWS, while enhancing our security and operational resiliency.”
Nearmap
Nearmap is a Perth-founded location intelligence company providing firms with easy access to high-resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D content, AI data sets, and geospatial tools. “We have compute-heavy AI and machine learning workloads that would be challenging to run without the scalability of AWS,” said Dr. Rob Newman, CEO and MD at Nearmap.
“AWS helps us provide our customers with real-time access to petabytes of Nearmap location data instantly via the web and APIs. The AWS Local Zones location in Perth gives us more options to reduce latency to drive better user experiences for our customers in Western Australia accessing high-resolution aerial imagery and location data.”
Mechanical Rock
Mechanical Rock is a Perth-based IT consultancy and AWS Advanced Consulting Partner that specializes in product development, modern data platforms, and enterprise DevOps-focused transformation. “The AWS Local Zones location in Perth is a game-changer for the services we’ll be able to offer local firms,” said Hamish Tedeschi, Founder and CEO, Mechanical Rock.
“AWS Local Zones will enable us to help more customers run latency-sensitive applications closer to their offices and sites, while addressing data residency preferences for our healthcare, financial services, and government customers,” Hamish Tedeschi commented.
HBF
HBF is Australia’s second-largest not-for-profit health insurer, providing hospital and ancillary insurance to about 1.1 million members. “We have selected AWS as our cloud provider in our cloud-first strategy,” said Sanjeev Gupta, Chief Information and Transformation Officer, HBF.
“AWS enables us to innovate at pace, process data faster, and enhance our capabilities to benefit our customer base in Western Australia and nationwide. The launch of the Perth AWS Local Zones location will help HBF to deliver future apps that require ultra-low latency.”
Woodside Energy
Woodside Energy is an energy company founded in Australia. “Our digital twin solution, Fuse, allows us to create a virtual replica of operations, pulling data from sensors, cameras, and robots for informed decisions,” said Ben Wilkinson, Chief Digital Officer, Woodside Energy.
“An AWS Local Zones location in Perth will give us the low latency capabilities we need for future Fuse use cases and help us continue re-imagining how our business can be operated more efficiently through the use of automation and digital twins,” Wilkinson concluded.
