Amazon Web Services to open data centres in the UAE

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, plans to open an infrastructure region in the UAE in the first half of 2022, it announced on May 26.

The new AWS Middle East (UAE) region will consist of three availability zones (data centers) and become AWS’s second region in the Middle East after Bahrain. It will enable local customers with data residency requirements to store their data in the UAE, while also providing even lower latency across the country. The new region will build upon AWS’s existing investment in the country, which includes two AWS Direct Connect locations and two Amazon CloudFront edge locations launched in 2018.

Organisations using this region will also be able to access advanced technologies from the suite of cloud services to drive innovation including compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile services and more, a statement said.

The company aims to continue to build teams of skilled individuals to help customers transition to AWS. To foster entrepreneurship and the growth of new businesses in the UAE, AWS will be further expanding the AWS Activate programme to support the UAE’s startups and SMBs.

“We are excited to build on the great momentum of cloud adoption in the Middle East by providing more choice for customers in the UAE to run applications and store data locally,” said Peter DeSantis, senior vice president of global infrastructure, AWS. “The new AWS Region supports the UAE’s focus on promoting technology innovation that has made it a thriving global hub for entrepreneurs, e-governments, and multi-national businesses. With the new region, organizations of all sizes will be able to innovate faster and serve end-users with even lower latency across the region.”

AWS Regions comprise of availability zones, which place infrastructure in distinct geographic locations with enough distance to reduce the risk of a single event impacting customers’ business continuity, yet near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that leverage multiple availability zones. Each availability zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low-latency networks.

Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, director general of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), said: “We welcome the upcoming AWS Region, which will bring advanced cloud infrastructure to the UAE. This comes in line with our goal of attracting investments that boost technology capabilities. We look forward to collaborating with AWS across the knowledge economy, including education initiatives, cloud skills training, and startup enablement programmes.”

Globally, AWS has 80 availability zones across 25 geographic regions, with plans to launch 18 more and six more AWS regions in Australia, India, Indonesia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UAE.