Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has announced its first Nordic data centers, with plans to open three locations in Sweden in 2018.
Launched in 2006, AWS gives companies cloud computing capabilities and negates the need to have their own on-site servers. At the time of writing, it offers server infrastructure across 16 regions, including Oregon, Northern California, China (Beijing), and Australia (Sydney), within which are 42 separate locations which Amazon refers to as “availability zones.” A few months back, Amazon’s first Canadian data centers went live followed shortly after by London, while India too got its first AWS infrastructure last summer.
Amazon has previously revealed that France will be getting its first dedicated data centers in 2017, while China will also receive another availability zone, this time in Ningxia. When Stockholm goes live next year, this will take Amazon’s European data center region count to five, after Ireland, Germany, France, and the U.K.
Though AWS already claims a number of clients across the Nordics, offering local server infrastructure makes the transfer of data between its clients and Amazon’s servers faster. And with so-called “data sovereignty” a growing concern for companies globally, being able to store their information closer to home should go some way toward encouraging new companies to sign up.
AWS has emerged as one of Amazon’s most lucrative businesses, and is now more than a $ 10 billion annual business in its own right. Back in February, AWS reported $ 3.5 billion in revenue in Q4 2016, representing a 47 percent year-on-year rise.
