AWS set to open two more local zones in India: Kumara Raghavan

The cloud computing unit of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, has planned to open two new local zones in Bengaluru and Chennai by the next two years, Kumara Raghavan, Head - Startups at AWS India, told YourStory.

Currently, AWS currently has two Asia-Pacific regions in India located in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

AWS has more than 200 services for computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 99 availability zones within 31 geographic regions.

It plans to launch 15 more such zones and five more AWS regions in Malaysia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand.

Helping businesses optimise costs

According to Raghavan, AWS is helping businesses with cost optimisation and has reduced prices 129 times, as of September 2022, through the Amazon flywheel. Otherwise known as Amazon Virtuous Cycle, it is a strategy where various values work together to promote traffic and the overall growth of any business on Amazon Marketplace.

"This is something that Jeff Bezos came up with, and it follows a simple principle: the more customers come on the platform, the more we are able to bring in economies of scale," said Raghavan.

Startups can also access AWS Activate—a programme that provides startups with the resources, support, and cost-effectiveness to launch and scale their apps on the cloud. By joining the programme, these startups can access AWS credits, technical support, network opportunities, and discounts on additional services in the form of AWS Activate credits.

Over the past year, Amazon has also provided nearly $1 billion in credit globally through the AWS Activate programme.

"Cloud can be one of the major costs for any business, we want to remove that from the equation, and that's what AWS Activate does; it's particularly useful for that phase of their journey," he added.

AWS also plans to invest $12.7 billion (Rs 1,05,600 crore) into cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 to fulfil rising consumer demand for the cloud in the country.

It also helps Indian businesses build digital solutions locally that can be scaled globally through the AWS Partner Network (APN), where Indian partners can use programmes, expertise, and resources to build, market, and sell customer offerings. The APN in India includes organisations such as Minfy Technologies, Rapyder Cloud Solutions, and Redington.

A focus on sustainability

In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge, which is committed to becoming a more sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040—10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. It aims to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.

About 400 organisations, ranging from 55 industries and 35 countries, have signed the Pledge, including CSM Technologies, GODI, Greenko Energy Holdings, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Mahindra Logistics, Tech Mahindra, and UPL Ltd in India.

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AWS plans to invest $12.7B into cloud infra in India

AWS also helps businesses improve sustainability in the cloud through tools such as the Sustainability Pillar for Well-Architected and the customer carbon footprint tool, helping customers understand the environmental impacts of the services they use. AWS tools and solutions also help accelerate the pace of sustainability innovation by customers in India such as in the energy sector with Greenko Group or Ion Energy.

For example, Chennai-based WEGoT Utility Solutions has developed a cloud-enabled water management platform on AWS that uses IoT-based ultrasonic water sensors to prevent billions of litres of water from going down the drain. Over the last seven years, the company has scaled operations and now processes over 35 million data points per day across more than 100,000 managed sensors on AWS.

Gurugram-based BluSmart, by using AWS Auto Scaling, was able to bring about efficiency in handling demand that helped save costs by 30%.

(This story has been updated to include details about AWS expansion plans.)