AWS to launch cloud region in Malaysia with $6 billion commitment

Amazon’s cloud computing division Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday said it is planning to launch a new cloud region in Malaysia and invest $6 billion in the country over the next 14 years.

“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,” Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, prime minister of Malaysia, said in a statement.

The new region, which is in the works, will have three availability zones, the company said.

Availability zones are the building blocks of an AWS region that place infrastructure independent of each other in separate and distinct geographic locations.  

When operational, the new region in Malaysia will become AWS’ 11^th region in the Asia Pacific. The other regions in APAC are based in India, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

Globally, the company has a total of 96 availability zones across 30 geographic locations and has plans to launch 15 more availability zones. It also plans to add five more AWS regions in Australia, Canada, Israel, Thailand, and New Zealand.

AWS rivals Microsoft and Google have already announced plans to launch their own cloud regions in Malaysia.

In April 2021, Microsoft announced its plans to launch its first data center in Greater Kuala Lumpur and committed $1 billion for the next five years.

In August last year, Google Cloud said it was planning to launch a new region in Malaysia.

Alibaba and Huawei also have data centers in Malaysia, offering cloud services to enterprises.