CLOUD
CLOUD
CLOUD
Expanding in Europe, Amazon Web Services sets new cloud region in Sweden next year
Amazon Web Services is to expand further into Europe with a new data center facility that’s set to open in Sweden sometime next year.
AWS chief evangelist Jeff Barr said in a blog post that the AWS EU Stockholm region will be comprised of three availability zones when it opens in 2018, without giving a more specific date. Stockholm will thereafter become AWS’s fifth EU region, alongside London, Frankfurt and Ireland, and a new facility that’s set to open in France later this year. The cloud giant is also set to open a new region in China later this year. Currently, AWS operates 42 availability zones across 16 regions.
In a statement, AWS Chief Executive Andy Jassy said the move will provide big benefits for the company’s Nordic customers. “An AWS Region in Stockholm enables Swedish and Nordic customers, with local latency or data sovereignty requirements, to move the rest of their applications to AWS and enjoy cost and agility advantages across their entire application portfolio,” Jassy said.
Meanwhile, Swedish innovation and enterprise minister Mikael Damberg said the company’s decision to set up shop in his home country was a “recognition of Sweden’s competitive position within the European Union, with the highest levels of renewable energy, in the power grid, in the EU.”
Sweden is one of Europe’s leading nations with regard to its use of renewable power sources. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in 2015, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said country was working towards becoming one of the first fossil fuel-free states in the world. Currently, 57 percent of Sweden’s power comes from renewable energy sources such as hydropower and wind. The country is on track to run entirely on renewable energy sources within 25 years.
AWS’s biggest cloud rival, Microsoft Corp., has yet to open a data center for its Azure cloud service in the region, though Facebook Inc. has operated a data center in Luleå, Sweden, since 2013, taking advantage of the freezing climate for cooling efficiencies and sustainability.
Image: Picudio/Pixabay.com
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
