AWS to open Local Zones in Brisbane, Perth

AWS has announced plans to expand its Australian presence with two new Local Zones in Brisbane and Perth.

AWS Local Zones use an edge computing model to place compute, storage database and other services at the edge of the cloud near large population centres.

They are designed to allow customers to use core AWS services locally while offloading the rest of their workloads to AWS Regions.

The Local Zones in Brisbane and Perth will accordingly complement AWS’s existing infrastructure in Australia, including its AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region, the upcoming AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region and edge locations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

AWS operates 16 Local Zones in the US and has an additional 30 planned for launch across 25 countries in the next two years.

AWS Director and County Leader Worldwide Public Sector for Australia and New Zealand Iain Rouse said the new local zones will offer single-digit millisecond latency for applications that require it, which can include remote real-time gaming, media and entertainment content creation, live video streaming, engineering simulations, augmented and virtual reality and machine learning at the edge.

“We know that delivering ultra-low-latency applications for a seamless user experience matters for many businesses and industries, so we are excited to bring the edge of the cloud closer to more customers in Australia to help meet their requirements,” he said.

“AWS Local Zones will empower more public and private organisations, innovative startups and AWS Partners to deliver a new generation of leading-edge, low-latency applications to end users, taking advantage of the cost savings, scalability and high availability that AWS provides. The new AWS Local Zones are a continuation of our investment to support customers of all kinds and commitment to accelerate innovation by bringing cloud infrastructure to more locations in Australia.”

Telstra Group Owner for Cloud, Edge and Industry Networks Angela Logothetis said the company will benefit from the AWS deployments.

“Telstra is working with leading enterprise and government customers to drive transformation for the digital economy. We leverage our network infrastructure and combine it with our edge, cloud, security and Telstra Purple-delivered professional services, along with apps and devices to deliver digital innovation to customers in mining, agriculture, transportation, supply chain, retail and many other industries,” she said.

“AWS is one of Telstra’s strategic partners and the expansion of AWS Local Zones in Perth and Brisbane will enable us to deliver the benefits of local public cloud services to more organisations in more industries — simplifying the experience and delivering greater agility to customers.”

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