Amazon has announced that it will launch a new AWS Zone Cloud Infrastructure in Kenya. The company has not shared the ETA or the exact details on when this will happen but that should take place this year.
Kenya is one of the 21 countries where Amazon will launch new AWS Local Zones. The others include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal and South Africa.
The new AWS Local Zone in Kenya will be joining 16 existing Local Zones across the United States.
What are AWS Local Zones
To put it into perspective, AWS Local Zones are a type of AWS infrastructure deployment that brings the compute, storage and a few other services close to customers. With this, customers are able to run applications on AWS that require single-digit millisecond latency performance to their end-users.
“The new AWS Local Zone in Kenya is a continuation of our investment to support customers of all kinds and our commitment to accelerate innovation by bringing cloud infrastructure to more locations in the country. We know that delivering ultra-low latency applications for a seamless user experience matters in every business and industry, so we are excited to bring the edge of the cloud closer to more customers in Kenya to help meet their requirements. AWS Local Zones will empower more public and private organizations, innovative startups, and AWS partners to deliver a new generation of leading edge, low-latency applications to end users. Customers can take advantage of the cost savings, scalability, and high availability that AWS provides.” said Robin Njiru, Regional Lead, East, West and Central Africa at Amazon Web Services.
AWS manages and supports Local Zones, meaning customers in Kenya do not need to incur the expense and effort of procuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure in Nairobi to support low-latency applications. AWS Local Zones also allow customers with local data residency requirements in Kenya to run parts of their applications in on-premises data centers and seamlessly connect to AWS while ensuring ultra-low latency for these types of hybrid deployments—all while using familiar AWS APIs and tools.
Customers can connect to AWS Local Zones through an internet connection or use AWS Direct Connect—a cloud service that links an organization’s network directly to AWS to deliver consistent, secure, low-latency performance—to route traffic over a private AWS network connection.
“We believe an AWS Local Zone will enable us to further enhance our cloud offerings, especially to our Enterprise and SME customers, and migrate more of our own services to the Cloud. Customer obsession remains a key focus for Safaricom and with this local presence driven by our partnership with Amazon, we will now achieve increased speed, stability, reliability, and storage to support innovation and development of future-fit solutions,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom PLC, a local partner of Amazon Web Services.
Read: Zalego Academy is now part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Training Partner Program
