Highlights

  • AWS introduces the Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region with three Availability Zones, increasing cloud infrastructure in Taiwan.
  • The new region supports local data residency requirements and aims to reduce latency for users across Asia Pacific.
  • Amazon plans to invest over GBP 5 billion in data center development, operations, and digital skills training in Taiwan.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) operates a diverse range of businesses, including e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The company focuses on long-term innovation and operational efficiency across its global operations.

The company has announced the launch of its AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region, marking a significant expansion of cloud infrastructure in Taiwan. The new AWS Region is designed to provide developers, startups, enterprises, and various organizations with enhanced options for running applications and delivering services from data centers located within Taiwan. This infrastructure will also help meet local data residency requirements for customers preferring to keep their data onshore.

The AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region consists of three Availability Zones at launch, contributing to AWS's global network of 117 Availability Zones across 37 regions. This launch is part of Amazon’s ongoing plan to add 13 more Availability Zones and four new AWS Regions worldwide, including locations in Chile, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

AWS's regional infrastructure places separate Availability Zones geographically apart to support business continuity while maintaining low latency for high availability applications. Each Availability Zone operates independently with dedicated power, cooling, physical security, and high-speed networking.

In line with this expansion, Amazon is planning an investment exceeding GBP 5 billion to support the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of its data centers in Taiwan. This investment is expected to enhance cloud services for a wide range of sectors such as education, entertainment, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and nonprofit organizations.

Local government officials highlighted the importance of the new region, recognizing Taiwan’s role in the global supply chain and the potential for advancing the country’s digital ecosystem. The collaboration between AWS and Taiwanese authorities aims to accelerate digital transformation and cloud adoption across industries.

Amazon is also focusing on skill development in the region, with initiatives like AWS Academy, AWS Educate, and AWS Skill Builder designed to train students, developers, and IT professionals. Since 2017, over 200,000 people in Taiwan have received cloud skills training through these programs. The company intends to hire and develop local personnel to support the new AWS region's operations.

This launch builds on Amazon’s existing presence in Taiwan, which includes Amazon CloudFront edge locations, AWS Direct Connect facilities, AWS Outposts, and AWS Local Zones, all aimed at improving cloud service delivery and connectivity.

AWS infrastructure investments focus on reliability, security, and energy efficiency. Efforts include optimizing data center design and investing in new technologies to reduce carbon emissions. A commissioned report by Accenture estimates AWS infrastructure is significantly more energy-efficient than typical on-premises data centers.

The new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region offers customers in Taiwan and the broader Asia Pacific region the ability to store data locally while accessing cloud services with improved performance and latency. This infrastructure supports workloads from a broad spectrum of clients, including startups, enterprises, government bodies, and nonprofit organizations.