Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing business of Amazon, announced Friday, November 6, 2020, its plans to open up a second data center in India.
Following the investment, Tech Crunch states that Amazon will build its new AWS Cloud region in Hyderabad, located in the southern state of India in Telangana. It will be the second data center in the whole of the country, with the first AWS region in Mumbai opened in 2016.
Though the tech firm and e-commerce platform declined to provide details of the deal, a politician familiar with the matter said the investment is valued at $2.8 billion.
Tech Crunch states that Telangana technology minister K T Rama Rao tweeted that the firm will spend around $2.77 billion to build the data centers in question.
The investment comes as more enterprises in India are opening up to the idea of cloud computing services not only to reduce operational costs but also to streamline processes to meet the needs of the people.
In a statement by AWS chief Jeff Barr, “As the capital and the largest city in Telangana, Hyderabad is already an important talent hub for IT professionals and entrepreneurs. This upcoming infrastructure region in Hyderabad is the latest in a long series of investments that we continue to make in India,” reports ZD Net.
Apart from India, the e-commerce giant is also eyeing to open more infrastructures in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Osaka, Japan. Meanwhile, for its European arm, the company is eyeing to open an AWS region in Zurich and Spain.
Similarly, Amazon’s press release via its Senior Vice President of Global Infrastructure and Global Support Peter DeSantis acknowledged that the “new AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region will enable even more developers, startups, and enterprises as well as government, education, and non-profit organizations to run their applications and serve end-users from data centers located in India.”
In an interview with Tech Crunch, chief analyst Jayanth Kolla from Convergence Catalyst said that Amazon’s desire to open more cloud regions in the country comes as the e-commerce giant doubles down on complying with the policy surrounding data localization.
At the same time, Kolla said that this move could potentially give the firm an edge in attracting and gaining more customers.
As of writing, Amazon counts some of India’s most lucrative businesses as part of its growing client list. These include Ashok Leyland, Axis Bank, Ola, Oyo, Mahindra Electric, RBL Bank, and many others, notes Tech Crunch.
