Enterprise

AWS brings its Local Zones mini data centers to 32 new cities

Comment

AWS re:Invent 2021
Image Credits: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

Latency is critical for a lot of workloads, yet the large cloud providers typically build their major data centers where the electricity is cheap and the local tax incentives high. In recent years, though, we’ve seen a new twist on this with projects like AWS’ Local Zones. These are small data centers adjacent to major population centers that provide core cloud features for applications like gaming, video streaming or machine learning inference that require low latency connections.

Today, after first teasing this announcement at its re:Invent conference last year, AWS is announcing a major expansion its original set of 16 Local Zones to 48.

These new zones will be located in cities across 26 countries: Amsterdam, Athens, Auckland, Bangkok, Bengaluru, Berlin, Bogotá, Brisbane, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Copenhagen, Delhi, Hanoi, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Kolkata, Lima, Lisbon, Manila, Munich, Nairobi, Oslo, Perth, Prague, Querétaro, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna and Warsaw. Until now, Local Zones were only available in the U.S.

The promise is that developers will be able to give their users in these cities single-digit millisecond performance for their applications.

“The edge of the cloud is expanding and is now becoming available virtually everywhere,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS, in today’s announcement. “Thousands of AWS customers using U.S.-based AWS Local Zones are able to optimize low-latency applications designed specifically for their industries and the use cases of their customers. With the success of our first 16 Local Zones, we are expanding to more locations for our customers around the world who have asked for these same capabilities to push the edge of cloud services to new places. AWS Local Zones will now be available in over 30 new locations globally, providing customers with a powerful new capability to leverage cloud services within a few milliseconds of hundreds of millions of end users around the world.”

AWS to launch over 30 new Local Zones internationally starting in 2022

More TechCrunch

Google has joined investors backing Namma Yatri, an open-source ride-sharing app in India that is eroding market share from Uber and Ola with its no-commission model. Namma Yatri, whose parent…

Google backs Indian open-source Uber rival

These messaging features, announced at WWDC 2024, will have a significant impact on how people communicate every day.

At last, Apple’s Messages app will support RCS and scheduling texts

iOS 18 will be available in the fall as a free software update.

Here are all the devices compatible with iOS 18

The tests indicate there are loopholes in TikTok’s ability to apply its parental controls and policies effectively in a situation where the teen user originally lied about their age, as…

TikTok glitch allows Shop to appear to users under 18, despite adults-only policy

Lhoopa has raised $80 million to address the lack of affordable housing in Southeast Asian markets, starting with the Philippines.

Lhoopa raises $80M to spur more affordable housing in the Philippines

Former President Donald Trump picked Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate on Monday, as he runs to reclaim the office he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020.…

Trump’s VP candidate JD Vance has long ties to Silicon Valley, and was a VC himself

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Is it just me, or is the news cycle only accelerating this summer?!

TechCrunch Space: Space cowboys

Apple Intelligence features are not available in the developer beta, which is out now.

Without Apple Intelligence, iOS 18 beta feels like a TV show that’s waiting for the finale

Apple released the public betas for its next generation of software on the iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch on Monday. You can now test out iOS 18 and many…

Apple’s public betas for iOS 18 are here to test out

One major dissenter threatens to upend Fisker’s apparent best chance at offloading its unsold EVs, a deal that would keep the startup’s bankruptcy proceeding alive and pave the way for…

Fisker has one major objector to its Ocean SUV fire sale

Payments giant Stripe has delayed going public for so long that its major investor Sequoia Capital is getting creative to offer returns to its limited partners. The venture firm emailed…

Major Stripe investor Sequoia confirms $70B valuation, offers its investors a payday

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for $23 billion, a person close to the company told TechCrunch. The deal discussions were previously reported by The…

Google’s Kurian approached Wiz, $23B deal could take a week to land, source says

Name That Bird determines individual members of a species by identifying distinguishing characteristics that most humans would be hard-pressed to spot.

Bird Buddy’s new AI feature lets people name and identify individual birds

YouTube Music is introducing two new ways to boost song discovery on its platform. YouTube announced on Monday that it’s experimenting with an AI-generated conversational radio feature, and rolling out…

YouTube Music is testing an AI-generated radio feature and adding a song recognition tool

Tesla had internally planned to build the dedicated robotaxi and the $25,000 car, often referred to as the Model 2, on the same platform.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla ‘robotaxi’ event delayed due to design change

What this means for the space industry is that theory has become reality: The possibility of designing a habitation within a lunar tunnel is a reasonable proposition.

Moon cave! Discovery could redirect lunar colony and startup plays

Get ready for a prime week of savings at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 with the launch of Disrupt Deal Days! From now to July 19 at 11:59 p.m. PT, we’re going…

Disrupt Deal Days are here: Prime savings for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024!

Deezer is the latest music streaming app to introduce an AI playlist feature. The company announced on Monday that a select number of paid users will be able to create…

Deezer chases Spotify and Amazon Music with its own AI playlist generator

Real-time payments are becoming commonplace for individuals and businesses, but not yet for cross-border transactions. That’s what Caliza is hoping to change, starting with Latin America. Founded in 2021 by…

Caliza lands $8.5 million to bring real-time money transfers to Latin America using USDC

Adaptive is a platform that provides tools designed to simplify payments and accounting for general construction contractors.

Adaptive builds automation tools to speed up construction payments

When VanMoof declared bankruptcy last year, it left around 5,000 customers who had preordered e-bikes in the lurch. Now VanMoof is up and running under new management, and the company’s…

How VanMoof’s new owners plan to win over its old customers

Mitti Labs aims to transform rice farming in India and other South Asian markets by reducing methane emissions by 50% and water consumption by 30%.

Mitti Labs aims to make rice farming less harmful to the climate, starting in India

This is a guide on how to check whether someone compromised your online accounts.

How to tell if your online accounts have been hacked

There is a general consensus today that generative AI is going to transform business in a profound way, and companies and individuals who don’t get on board will be quickly…

The AI financial results paradox

Google’s parent company Alphabet might be on the verge of making its biggest acquisition ever. The Wall Street Journal reports that Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for…

Google reportedly in talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23B

Featured Article

Hank Green reckons with the power — and the powerlessness — of the creator

Hank Green has had a while to think about how social media has changed us. He started making YouTube videos in 2007 with his brother, novelist John Green, at a time when the first iPhone was in development, Myspace was still relevant and Instagram didn’t exist. Seventeen years later, posting…

Hank Green reckons with the power — and the powerlessness — of the creator

Here is a timeline of Synapse’s troubles and the ongoing impact it is having on banking consumers. 

Synapse’s collapse has frozen nearly $160M from fintech users — here’s how it happened

Featured Article

Helixx wants to bring fast-food economics and Netflix pricing to EVs

When Helixx co-founder and CEO Steve Pegg looks at Daisy — the startup’s 3D-printed prototype delivery van — he sees a second chance. And he’s pulling inspiration from McDonald’s to get there.  The prototype, which made its global debut this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, is an interesting proof…

Helixx wants to bring fast-food economics and Netflix pricing to EVs

Featured Article

India clings to cheap feature phones as brands struggle to tap new smartphone buyers

India is struggling to get new smartphone buyers, as millions of Indians don’t go for an upgrade and continue to be on feature phones.

India clings to cheap feature phones as brands struggle to tap new smartphone buyers

Roboticists at The Faboratory at Yale University have developed a way for soft robots to replicate some of the more unsettling things that animals and insects can accomplish — say,…

Meet the soft robots that can amputate limbs and fuse with other robots