by Jan Michael Carpo, Reporter
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the launch of a new AWS Local Zones location in Manila that would allow its customers to deploy distributed edge and hybrid cloud applications requiring single-digit millisecond latency to end users in the country.
AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that places AWS compute, storage, database, or other services near large populations, industry, and IT centers. They can be utilized to support customers operating in regulated sectors like healthcare, financial services, and even the public sector that may have data residency preferences. They can also help organizations migrate additional workloads to AWS, thus effectively supporting a hybrid cloud migration strategy and simplifying IT operations.
With it, customers can run workloads with low latency requirements on AWS Local Zones while seamlessly connecting to the rest of their workloads running in AWS Regions. The new AWS Local Zones location in Manila is the newest addition to the AWS infrastructure in the Philippines, which already includes Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network service built for high performance, security, and developer convenience; AWS Outposts, a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to customer premises; and Amazon Interactive Video Service points of presence, a fully managed service that makes it easy to set up live, interactive video streams for a web or mobile application in just a few minutes.
AWS currently has 34 AWS Local Zones across the globe, with plans to launch 19 more Local Zones in other parts of the world. To get started on AWS Local Zones, visit aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/localzones/locations.
IMAGE CREDIT: aws.amazon.com/blogs
Launch to support digital transformation efforts in PH
“The launch of an AWS Local Zones location in Manila is another step in our commitment to unlocking economic value by supporting the digital transformation efforts of all Filipinos,” said Joel Garcia, Head of Technology, ASEAN, at AWS.
“By reducing latency, organizations in the Philippines can help improve the performance of their applications, process large amounts of data faster, and drive productivity gains. AWS Local Zones will help customers accelerate the development of new solutions such as remote manufacturing simulations, immersive retail experiences, and live trading platforms,” he adds.
According to Joel, the new AWS Local Zones location in Manila will give customers the ability to deploy applications close to end users across the city quickly. Having AWS Local Zones close to large population centers enables customers to achieve the low latency required for use cases like online gaming, as well as for live streaming and augmented and virtual reality.
For his part, Ivan John Uy, secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said, “The launch of the AWS Local Zones location in Manila is a testament to the growing reputation of the Philippines as a premier regional IT hub. We look forward to collaborating with more companies as they set up their IT businesses in the Philippines. We are committed to creating a conducive environment for these ventures.”
For applications that require single-digit millisecond latency or have to remain within a geographic boundary to meet data residency preferences, the location of cloud infrastructure matters. Most customer workloads run in an AWS Region, a geographic location where AWS clusters data centers to serve their customers. However, when an AWS Region is not close enough to meet low latency or data residency requirements, customers would need to put their AWS infrastructure closer to their data source or end users.
Organizations have traditionally maintained these location-sensitive workloads on-premises or in managed data centers that require customers to procure, operate, and maintain their existing IT infrastructure, and use different sets of Application Programming Interfaces (API) and tools for their on-premises and AWS environments.
AWS manages and supports AWS Local Zones — meaning, customers no longer need to incur additional expense or effort in procuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure in various locations to support low-latency applications.
Customers can connect to AWS Local Zones through an internet connection. They can use AWS Direct Connect to create a private, physical network connection to the new AWS Local Zones location in Manila and access public AWS Regions and all other AWS Local Zones worldwide. The AWS Direct Connect location in Manila was launched in May 2023 – the first in the Philippines. In addition to the AWS Direct Connect, customers can also access AWS Local Zones using an internet connection or a virtual private network (VPN).
AWS partners and customers welcome the new AWS Local Zones location in Manila
“BDO has collaborated with AWS since 2019 to accelerate our digital transformation efforts. We welcome AWS’s continued commitment to bringing cloud infrastructure to the Philippines,” stated Paul Siy, Chief Technology Officer at BDO Unibank.
“The AWS Local Zones location in Manila will help accelerate local cloud migration and enable us to develop innovative, low latency banking solutions to transform the way that Filipinos access financial services,” he added. BDO Unibank (BDO) is currently the largest bank in the Philippines with more than 1,300 operating branches and over 4,000 ATMs nationwide.
“The new AWS Local Zones location in Manila will empower businesses, startups, and developers in the country to accelerate innovation with access to reliable cloud infrastructure closer to their applications,” said Bernard Chua, Country Head at eCloudvalley Digital Technology.
“Together with AWS, eCloudvalley is committed to helping customers of all sizes develop low latency applications critical for industries such as health care, financial services, gaming, and the public sector, and in educating the next wave of cloud practitioners in the Philippines,” added Chua. eCloudvalley is a born-in-the-cloud AWS Premier Consulting Partner in AsPac with local offices in 11 countries worldwide.
“The low latency that AWS Local Zones delivers is critical to our research efforts, which require us to process vast amounts of agricultural data such as rice variety genomes and weather patterns,” said Marco van den Berg, Chief Information Officer at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
“The AWS Local Zones location in Manila will help us unleash greater innovation in the agri-tech sector and build solutions that create a more sustainable future for all,” he said further. The IRRI is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger in populations that depend on rice-based agri-food systems.
For his part, Mitch Locsin, First Vice President & Head of Enterprise and International Group at PLDT, the largest integrated telecommunications group in the Philippines, said, “We congratulate AWS on the launch of the new AWS Local Zones location in Manila, which will accelerate the growth of cloud adoption in the Philippines.”
“The cloud plays an important role in the digital transformation of Philippine enterprises by enabling them to accelerate the development of new services. We are pleased to see continued digital investments in the Philippines, which support the government’s ambitions for the nation to become Asia’s next digital hub,” he added.
AWS works with various customers in the Philippines for their digital transformation needs and in providing better services to Filipinos. Aside from BDO, eCloudValley, PLDT, and the IRRI, the company has worked with companies like GCash and Pearlpay to provide seamless digital banking access to Filipinos, especially during the pandemic.
The company has also worked with UnionBank of the Philippines (UnionBank), which shared that AWS’s services have allowed 85 percent of their workforce to work from home during the pandemic. Thanks to AWS, UnionBank was likewise able to garner 250,000 new accounts, 90 percent of which were accessed from digital channels.
According to the Aboitiz-led bank, they were able to save up to 75 percent of data retrieval time and facilitate more strategic work roles for the IT team. UnionBank was also able to ensure the security of their customers’ data, reduce the backup time from eight to two hours and offer an annual cost savings of up to US$380,500 for storage. /JMC