Amazon Web Services has selected Spain as the location of its newest European data centres. The country joins the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Sweden and Italy, and becomes the seventh region to house AWS data centres on the continent of Europe.
A total of three physical data centres will be built by Amazon in Spain, with the company hoping to have them operational by late 2022 to early 2023. When the centres are operational, Amazon says that Spanish companies will benefit from even lower latency than they currently enjoy.
“Cloud computing is already powering innovation within businesses, educational institutions, public administrations, and government agencies across Spain, and with this AWS infrastructure region, we look forward to helping accelerate this transformation,” said Peter DeSantis, VP of Global Infrastructure and Customer Support, Amazon Web Services.
“Opening an AWS Region in Spain will drive more technology jobs and businesses, boosting the local economy, while enabling organisations across all industries to lower costs, increase security, and improve agility. We’re excited to have AWS contribute to the future growth of Spain.”
Amazon continues its aggressive growth plans for AWS, with the company hoping to hold onto its top spot in the market as it faces increased competition from the likes of Microsoft’s Azure, which recently won the $10 billion JEDI contract from the US Government, and even Oracle. This announcement brings the total number of data centres Amazon hopes to bring online in the next few years to 13, with the number of new regions available to customers brought to four.
AWS’ announcement was welcomed by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who described it as great news for the country. “This investment from AWS will allow Spain to fully adapt to the digital transformation and develop as an international center of innovation and technology. Cloud computing, in addition to promoting technological progress in the private sector, will enable the public administration to improve the services it provides to citizens. A secure cloud is an essential tool for the development of our economy, as well as for the generation of jobs in our country. We highly value AWS’s commitment to the technological development of Spain and the upskilling of our citizens.”
The addition of the AWS Europe (Spain) Region will enable local customers with data residency requirements to store their content in Spain, with the assurance that they retain complete control over the location of their data, while customers building applications that comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have access to another AWS infrastructure region in the EU.
AWS is also Esquema Nacional de Seguridad (ENS) High certified, meaning its infrastructure meets the highest levels of security and compliance for government agencies and public organisations in Spain.
