AWS Expands Cloud Infrastructure in New Zealand With New AWS Local Zone in Auckland

New AWS Local Zone will deliver single-digit millisecond latency performance at the edge of the cloud

AUCKLAND—Feb. 17, 2022—Today, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced plans to launch a new AWS Local Zone in Auckland. The AWS Local Zone will complement AWS’s existing infrastructure in New Zealand, including Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network service built for high performance, security, and developer convenience, AWS Outposts, a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to customer premises, and a NZ$7.5 billion investment in a new infrastructure region planned to open in Auckland in 2024.

AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that places AWS compute, storage, database, and other services at the edge of the cloud near large population, industry, and information technology (IT) centres—enabling customers to deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latency closer to end users or on-premises data centres. AWS Local Zones allow customers to use core AWS services locally while seamlessly connecting to the rest of their workloads running in AWS Regions with the same elasticity, pay-as-you-go model, application programming interfaces (APIs), and toolsets. To learn more about AWS Local Zones, visit aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/localzones.

The new AWS Local Zones will give customers in New Zealand the ability to offer end users single-digit millisecond performance designed to suit applications such as remote real-time gaming, media and entertainment content creation, live video streaming, engineering simulations, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning inference at the edge, and more. AWS manages and supports AWS Local Zones, meaning customers in New Zealand do not need to incur the expense and effort of procuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure to support low-latency applications. AWS Local Zones also allow customers with local data residency preferences in New Zealand to run parts of their applications in on-premises data centres and seamlessly connect to AWS while ensuring ultra-low latency for these types of hybrid deployments—all while using familiar AWS APIs and tools.

The new AWS Local Zone in Auckland will join 16 existing AWS Local Zones across the United States and an additional 31 AWS Local Zones planned to launch in 25 countries around the world over the next two years—delivering single-digit millisecond latency performance at the edge of the cloud to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

“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 New Zealand to help meet their requirements,” said Tiffany Bloomquist, Country Manager for Commercial at AWS in New Zealand. “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. This new AWS Local Zone is a continuation of our investment to support customers of all kinds and commitment to accelerate innovation by bringing cloud infrastructure to more locations in New Zealand.”

TVNZ is New Zealand's state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster that reaches more than two million Kiwis daily. “TVNZ brings viewers the best local and international content, and the launch of a new AWS Local Zone for Aotearoa will provide an even faster and more reliable way to deliver our services and content to New Zealanders,” said Jean-Louis Acafrao, General Manager, Technology at TVNZ. “AWS Local Zones will help us provide the best possible quality streaming experience for our TVNZ OnDemand viewers, ensuring continued audience growth for our platform. We’re excited to take full advantage of this investment in local digital infrastructure.”

Spark is New Zealand’s largest telecommunications and digital services company that provides services to a wide range of leading New Zealand organisations through Spark Business Group which unites Spark’s services with its specialist businesses, CCL, Leaven, Qrious, and Digital Island. “We welcome AWS’s continued local investment in advanced cloud capabilities and infrastructure, which is an important enabler for businesses across Aotearoa,” said Heather Graham, CEO of CCL, Spark’s cloud business. “As part of our hybrid cloud portfolio, we look forward to helping our customers take advantage of the low-latency and performance benefits the new service offers.”

Deloitte New Zealand is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner that brings together more than 1,400 specialists, providing New Zealand with a wide range of high-quality professional services. “Deloitte is focused on transforming New Zealand companies, and our collaboration with AWS enables us to help customers modernise, bring products to market quicker, and innovate rapidly,” said Damian Harvey, Deloitte New Zealand Cloud Transformation Lead. “An AWS Local Zone in Auckland will bring the cloud even closer to our customers, enabling ultra-low latency cloud solutions that process data closer to source to improve response times and customer experiences. It's a great addition to AWS's already significant investment with the upcoming AWS Region in Auckland, and together will help accelerate cloud adoption, and drive our digital economy forward.”

About Amazon Web Services
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 84 Availability Zones (AZs) within 26 geographic regions, with announced plans for 24 more Availability Zones and eight more AWS Regions in Australia, Canada India, Israel, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon
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