EXPANDING UK DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud service arm of Amazon, has announced that it plans to significantly expand its data center and cloud footprint in the UK over the next two years.

In a bid to meet growing needs of its customers, AWS stated that this expansion is expected to require an investment of about £1.8 billion which will be expended on building and operating data centers in the UK.

“We are proud of the contributions we are making to the UK economy. Looking ahead, we know that the UK remains full of opportunity and we continue to be excited by the potential to continue supporting our customers, partners, and citizens across the UK over the years to come,” said Darren Hardman, VP & General Manager of AWS UK and Ireland.

The planned UK cloud region or data center clusters are expected to be powered by 100% renewable energy, in line with AWS commitment to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030. The company adds that it is already on a path to achieving its Climate Pledge by 2025, five years ahead of the initial target.

As part of the UK investment, AWS plans to accelerate cloud adoption through the provision of free cloud computing skills training. Already, the company has launched a number of learning and skills programs in the UK including AWS Educate, AWS Academy, and AWS re/Start.

Other AWS expansion efforts across the globe include the recently opened AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) cloud region which now delivers the company’s cloud services from data centers located in Indonesia. AWS further stated that it is planning to invest an estimated $5 billion (IDR$71 trillion) in Indonesia over the next 15 years through the new AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region, which includes capital expenditures on the construction of data centers, operational expenses.