Amazon Web Services (AWS) is coming to Mexico, with plans to develop an Infrastructure Region by early 2025, according to parent company Amazon.com. The company says it will invest more than US$5 billion over a period of 15 years. A spokesperson for Mexico's government expressed enthusiasm for the announcement, with Raquel Buenrostro, Secretary of the Economy stating, “Cloud services are an essential part of everyday life, helping us to digitally and economically transform Mexico. We welcome AWS’s investment and expansion in Mexico because it is a sign of trust and demonstrates conditions are right to support the nearshoring trend across many sectors of our economy.”

The new AWS Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch, adding to AWS’s existing 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally, according to the company. “The AWS Mexico (Central) Region will enable customers with data residency preferences or requirements to store their content securely in Mexico, enable customers to achieve lower latency, and serve demand for cloud services across Latin America,” according to a company statement.

AWS cited Aeroméxico, Banco Santander Mexico, and the Government of the State of Michoacán as having already become AWS customers in Mexico.

Development in Queretaro
A key aspect of the AWS announcement is the location of its new Digital Infrastructure in the state of Queretaro in the country's Bajio region about 100 miles northwest of Mexico City, rather than in the sprawling capital itself. The AWS announcement is in line with recent efforts within Mexico to locate new data centers and related infrastructure in states and regions within proximity of the capital, to take some population pressure off of Mexico City while continuing to serve its growing needs.

Mexico is in a unique geographical position, participating with the US and Canada as part of North America, while also being (along with Brazil) one of the two very large Latin American nations, while also being substantial enough to have its own, individual market presence.

Mexico is Lagging in Latin America
Within Latin America, though, Mexico is shown by IDCA Research data to be under-developed in its server infrastructure and overall Digital Infrastructure, ranking in the lower quartile of Latin America in the IDCA Digital Readiness Index of Nations. Smaller nations such as Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica have emerged as regional leaders along with the colossus Brazil. Mexico also trails potential up-and-comers in the region such as Colombia and Peru.

A new, substantial presence from AWS should bolster the nation's ability to progress. Yet IDCA Research also indicates the the presence of the major cloud providers also poses challenges for domestic cloud suppliers to develop and thrive. AWS for its part says it has plans to launch new Availability Zones and Regions in the developing nations Malaysia and Thailand, as well as in the small, developed nation New Zealand.

The large footprint of AWS, the two other Big Three vendors Microsoft and Google (with Oracle also becoming ever more aggressive), and major operators Apple and Facebook can easily overwhelm the paucity of existing infrastructure in most of the world's developing nations, as well as the smaller developed nations. IDCA Research's efforts in examining this issue continue, and we always welcome feedback and information about this issue from our readers' points of view.