Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), launched this week a new Seoul datacenter region, strengthening its position in the Asia-Pacific area (APAC).
“Thousands of Korean customers have used the AWS Cloud from other AWS regions for many years.” The company announced Wednesday that the Seoul Region was now available to Korean-based developers and companies. They can also store and process data in AWS Korea with a single-digit millisecond latency throughout most of Korea.
Two “Availability Zones” are currently in place in the new Seoul region. An availability zone is a hub that has at least one geographically distinct datacenter.
With the launch of the Seoul region, the current number of AWS availability zone covers 12 regions worldwide. It is also the fifth AWS region in APAC, joining regions in Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing (see map).
[Click on the image to see a larger version.] Map of AWS availability zones and regions. Source: AWS Global Infrastructure page. “Our Korean customers and partners asked us to build AWS infrastructure here in Korea so they can run more workloads on AWS, and approve new initiatives that could improve their customer experience. We’re excited about delivering it to our customers today,” stated Andy Jassy, Senior Vice President at AWS.
AWS’s other investments in Korea include “[t]eams [of] Account Managers and Solutions Architects,” Technical Support Engineers, Professional Services Consultants and other functions support customers,” AWS said. AWS Partner Network also has many ISVs and systems integrators (SIs), based in Korea.
As Microsoft’s Azure public clouds reach fever pitch, AWS continues to build out its cloud infrastructure. Microsoft has spent a substantial amount of money — an estimated $15 billion — to build out Azure’s infrastructure. It currently serves 140 countries in 20 regions. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has positioned its geographic reach as a selling point over AWS or the Google Cloud Platform.
AWS intends to expand its reach to other markets in 2016. AWS plans to launch new regions in China, India and Ohio this year, adding nine additional availability zones to its portfolio.
