Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a second AWS infrastructure Region in Australia, to be called the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region. AWS plans to invest an estimated US$4.5 billion in the country by 2037, according to the company.

Australia ranks 32nd among 147 countries in IDCA's new EESG Digital Readiness Index, which balances a nation's economy, environmental conditions, social fabric, and governance to determine specific challenges facing each nation. Australia has a relatively strong economy and well-developed social and governance conditions, but lags badly in the environmental area. It ranks 22nd among 38 highly developed nations in the index, adjacent to Czechia and France.

Victoria Government Likes It
“We know how important access to secure cloud infrastructure is to Victorian businesses, and providing more choice will deliver a boost to the economy, support innovation, and help to create new jobs locally,” said Victorian Minister for Trade and Investment Tim Pallas.

With the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region, AWS now has 99 Availability Zones across 31 geographic regions, with announced plans to launch 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand. The AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region consists of three Availability Zones and joins the existing AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region, which opened in November 2012.

Serving Diverse Australian Customers
Australian customers using AWS include Airtasker, Animal Logic, ANZ Bank, Atlassian, Canva, Cochlear, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Jim’s Group, Kmart, Lion, Lovisa, National Australia Bank, Optus, PEXA Group, Pizza Hut, Smiling Mind, Swimming Australia, Target, Telstra, Ticketek, Woodside Energy, and Youfoodz, according to AWS.

Australian public sector customers include FrontierSI, Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), University of Melbourne, and Victorian Land Registry Services.

Australian startups using AWS include Brighte, FloodMapp, FrankieOne, Illuvium, Law On Earth, Littlepay, Mr Yum, Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t), Reejig, and Swoop Aero, are building their businesses with the use of AWS to rapidly scale nationally and around the world.

In addressing environmental issues, an AWS statement says “Amazon is committed to reaching net-zero carbon across its business by 2040 and is on a path to powering operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target. Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, and as of 2021, reached 85% renewable energy across its business.”

Photo of Tim Pallas from Government of Australia.