Following the launch of AWS Local Zones in 16 US cities, Amazon Web Services is expanding its offering to 32 new metropolitan areas in 26 countries around the world.
AWS Local Zones serve as infrastructure that extends compute, storage, and database services to the edge of the cloud near large population and IT centres.
Through Local Zones, customers can deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latencies closer to end users or on-premises data centres.
Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of infrastructure services at AWS, said: “The edge of the cloud is expanding and is now becoming available virtually everywhere. Thousands of AWS customers using US-based AWS Local Zones are able to optimise low-latency applications designed specifically for their industries and the use cases of their customers.”
For the majority of current use cases, cloud computing provides sufficient latency. However, applications that require ultra-low latency – remote real-time gaming, content creation, live streaming, simulations, augmented and virtual reality, and machine learning – will benefit substantially from AWS Local Zones.
Netflix is one such company taking advantage of the latency advantages Local Zones offer. As its production wing shifts more towards animation and visual effects, Netflix’s artists have needed specialised hardware with access to petabytes of visual data.
Stephen Kowalski, director of digital production infrastructure engineering at Netflix, said: “Historically, artists had specialised machines built for them at their desks; now, we are working to move their workstations to AWS to take advantage of the cloud.
“In order to provide a good working experience for our artists, they need low latency access to their virtual workstations. AWS Local Zones brings cloud resources closer to our artists and have been a game changer for these applications.”
Over the next two years, new AWS Local Zones will launch in Amsterdam, Athens, Auckland, Bangkok, Bengaluru, Berlin, Bogotá, Brisbane, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Copenhagen, Delhi, Hanoi, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Kolkata, Lima, Lisbon, Manila, Munich, Nairobi, Oslo, Perth, Prague, Querétaro, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna, and Warsaw.
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