AWS Malaysia goes online as part of $6 billion investment

Amazon has added another region to its AWS services in Asia Pacific. The AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) region, launched this week, comprises of three availability zones – clusters of infrastructure that are geographically separate.

Amazon said it will invest over $6 billion in Malaysia over the next 13 years, and expects building and running of the Malaysian cloud region to give rise to 3,500 jobs in the country.

According to the cloud giant, there are now AWS users in over 190 countries worldwide, including “millions of active customers” in Malaysia.

One example is Petronas, the Malaysian oil-and-gas multinational whose HQ is Kuala Lumpur’s best-known landmark, which uses AWS for its offshore logistics business. Meanwhile CelecomDigi, Malaysia’s biggest mobile operator, is using AWS’ artificial intelligence tool Bedrock to create generative AI services.

Related reading: Can you build a generative AI app with Amazon Bedrock?

Malaysian masterplan…

Last year, the Malaysian government announced its New Industrial Masterplan 2030 (NIMP 2030), which aims to grow the country’s manufacturing industry – one of its largest economic drivers – by 60% by the next decade.

One of NIMP 2030’s missions is “tech up for digitally vibrant nation”. This sets out a target for 3,000 of Malaysia’s factories to become ‘smart factories’ through the use of cloud, AI, automation and robotics. It also highlights the need for greater digitalisation in the public sector and more homegrown tech services and talent, particularly in AI.

According to Tengku Zafrul, Malaysia’s Minister of Investment, Trade & Industry, the Malaysian AWS region will help achieve the vision set out in the plan.

… and the AWS masterplan

The addition of Malaysia brings AWS to 13 regions in Asia Pacific; the first of which, Singapore, went live in 2010. Two further regions, Thailand and Taiwan, are ‘coming soon’, according to Amazon’s latest map.

AWS now has 100 availability zones across 34 regions globally. Six more regions with 18 availability zones are planned, the company said, including Mexico, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Then there’s the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. This is a region designed for public sector and finance organisations that need to keep their data and infrastructure wholly within the EU. It’s due to go live in Germany next year. 

Amazon’s most recent quarterly results, released earlier this month, show AWS earnings hit $26.3 billion, a 19% rise compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. AWS accounted for around one-fifth of all Amazon’s earnings during the quarter.