Coming in 2018 – New AWS Region in Sweden (opens in new tab)

(aws.amazon.com)

188 pointsalecsx69y ago76 comments

76 comments

40 comments · 7 top-level

EtienneK9y ago· 15 in thread

When will Africa get a region?

Seriously, we have companies willing to pay big money to use a region closer to us.

metricodus9y ago

No idea if any of this is true today, but here's what a quick google search found:

https://www.quora.com/Is-Amazon-planning-to-open-a-data-cent...

"Franco Austin, former Technical Account Manager at Amazon Web Services:

'Whilst South Africa only have a single energy provider, no. So the answer would be probably not soon, unless AWS plan to build their own energy provider, the requirements for a DC for AWS is that it has got 2 independent electricity providers on different grids. Thus I doubt if South Africa will see an AWS data center and I love to be proven wrong, at this stage I believe the best we can hope for in South Africa is a pop or edge location.'"

sgt9y ago

I think Eskom will remain the single energy provider in South Africa for some time, but I think this concern can be mitigated by simply generating the power yourself or via a partner company that offers local electricity directly from e.g. a solar panel farm. South Africa has sufficient solar potential.

1 more reply

gtsteve9y ago

Where would you propose hosting it in Africa? I understand that the consumer internet situation is not very good over there, are there datacenters and strong fiber links to USA and Europe?

This is essentially why my company doesn't target African markets, because our software requires a persistent internet connection.

niftich9y ago

Pick a spot [1] touched by more than one thick pipe, in jurisdiction known for political and civic stability and a regime with rough compatibility to the ideology and national security apparatus of western allies -- their home base and primary source of customers; receptive and promoting of foreign investment, and having access to multiple reliable, redundant power sources from which to draw energy.

As of time of writing it's a tough proposition.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Cable_ma...

sgt9y ago

South Africa has good and stable fiber links. It would be the natural choice.

1 more reply

bogomipz9y ago

There is good fiber in East Africa, its been there for a few years now:

http://www.eassy.org/network_overview.html

There's DC facilities there as well:

http://telecoms.com/180712/east-africa-opens-monster-datacen...

EtienneK9y ago

South Africa is the most obvious spot. There's even an AWS dev centre in Cape Town: http://www.adccpt.com/

John238329y ago

Kenya... It's not the backwoods that the west thinks it is...

1 more reply

isotop9y ago

Why not Israel? * We have multiple fiber links * A lot of AWS heavy workloads comes from Israeli companies * Easy connection to other location through Egypt and Jordan

4 more replies

budu39y ago

East Africa, maybe Kenya.

nemesisj9y ago

Dubai. Yes, not actually in Africa, but much closer to the area and relatively stable. Also, there's plenty of activity going on in the Middle East that would justify this (I think).

2 more replies

bdcravens9y ago

Tunisia may be an option

oblio9y ago

At this point it seems that big US companies are too afraid to invest in Africa.

Which is kind of strange, since they weren't afraid to invest in China or Iraq.

On top of this, funnily enough, the Chinese aren't afraid and by the time the US companies get going...

snackai9y ago

What? Comparing the situation in Africa to China? FFS, Hacker News...

bogomipz9y ago

>"At this point it seems that big US companies are too afraid to invest in Africa"

That statement is just plain wrong and uninformed.

Google, FB, IBM and Microsoft are all making significant investments in Africa. See the following:

http://fortune.com/2016/05/26/u-s-tech-giants-flock-to-afric...

The world's largest young populations are all in Africa and these companies know this:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/the-world-s-10-younge...

pdpi9y ago· 11 in thread

Have to wonder how much of the push for more EU AWS regions comes from dealing with a potential exodus from the London region due Brexit (e.g. because of data protection issues)

dazc9y ago

Data centre in Dublin is well established (UK centre is fairly new IIRC?) and there is zero chance of Ireland leaving the EU, so I doubt this is the reason.

rsynnott9y ago

The German one is also older than the UK one.

redcalx9y ago

I imagine the greater concern is the deep integration between the NSA, GCHQ and ISPs in the UK and USA.

sebcat9y ago

Sweden cooperates with the NSA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Establi...

Zolomon9y ago

Err.. The Swedish FRA[1] is in cahoots with the ones you mention. I doubt that's the concern.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Estab...

nallerooth9y ago

In Sweden we've got "FRA", which is one of NSA's BFFs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Establi...

metafunctor9y ago

FRA, the Swedish national authority for signals intelligence, is well-known for collaborating with the NSA.

reason_police9y ago

As if any first-world government weren't already monitoring everyone as best they can?

1 more reply

jk5639y ago

I think (with no basis in reputable source) it's more just that Amazon see a large potential market in Europe that current Regions can't cover. There're also possibly local data laws / policies that mean not every company could use one of the existing Regions.

moonbug9y ago

Dude, you'd not believe how big the demand on the UK region is.

lucaspiller9y ago

Care to elaborate?

filleokus9y ago· 5 in thread

Interesting that AWS didn't chose to place their DC's at the "Node Pole" (http://thenodepole.com) in the northern parts of Sweden where FB have theirs.

lucideer9y ago

Slightly OT, but also interesting that the "Node Pole" host their website on AWS...

acd9y ago

Most likely to be closer to the capital Stockholm, main Internet exchange and startups in Sweden. Further more you will have better latency to the rest of Nordics closer to Stockholm.

Population density of the Nordics https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden#/media/File:Norden_pop_...

Spiritus9y ago

I'm actually disappointed they went with Stockholm. Though I can understand why (proximity to a large pool of talent among other things).

jacquesm9y ago

Why would they need to be close to 'a large pool of talent' in order to run a bunch of hosting? It doesn't take that many people to run a hosting facility, the ones I'm familiar with are mostly deserted. They take people to set up and a large amount of capital but once that's done it takes very few people to run.

Even the (very large) Google data centers typically do not employ more than 100 people, that's 30 people over 3 shifts and some overhead.

2 more replies

pathy9y ago

They aren't actually located in Stockholm, but close enough to use resources from the Stockholm Area. Supposedly the DCs will be located in Västerås, Eskilstuna and Katrineholm[0].

[0] http://digital.di.se/artikel/amazon-oppnar-tre-datacenter-i-...

1 more reply

metricodus9y ago· 2 in thread

That's a slightly awkward looking reference customer list (assuming that's what it is).

mrweasel9y ago

May I ask why? Is it just because you don't know them?

metricodus9y ago

I know them, but those startup names are hardly household names even in Sweden.

1 more reply

mindjiver9y ago

A map of the new locations can be found here: https://www.thelocal.se/20170404/map-amazon-to-open-three-ne.... Seems like the one in Västerås is right next to the Westinghouse uranium fuel factory. Sadly no power plant right next to it though :)

eatbitseveryday9y ago

Also an entry on Werner Vogel's blog about this.

http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2017/04/aws-announces-eu...

CodeSheikh9y ago

Morocco, South Africa, Dubai could be new regions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

76 comments

40 comments · 7 top-level

EtienneK9y ago· 15 in thread

When will Africa get a region?

Seriously, we have companies willing to pay big money to use a region closer to us.

metricodus9y ago

No idea if any of this is true today, but here's what a quick google search found:

https://www.quora.com/Is-Amazon-planning-to-open-a-data-cent...

"Franco Austin, former Technical Account Manager at Amazon Web Services:

sgt9y ago

1 more reply

gtsteve9y ago

Where would you propose hosting it in Africa? I understand that the consumer internet situation is not very good over there, are there datacenters and strong fiber links to USA and Europe?

This is essentially why my company doesn't target African markets, because our software requires a persistent internet connection.

niftich9y ago

As of time of writing it's a tough proposition.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Cable_ma...

sgt9y ago

South Africa has good and stable fiber links. It would be the natural choice.

1 more reply

bogomipz9y ago

There is good fiber in East Africa, its been there for a few years now:

http://www.eassy.org/network_overview.html

There's DC facilities there as well:

http://telecoms.com/180712/east-africa-opens-monster-datacen...

EtienneK9y ago

South Africa is the most obvious spot. There's even an AWS dev centre in Cape Town: http://www.adccpt.com/

John238329y ago

Kenya... It's not the backwoods that the west thinks it is...

1 more reply

isotop9y ago

Why not Israel? * We have multiple fiber links * A lot of AWS heavy workloads comes from Israeli companies * Easy connection to other location through Egypt and Jordan

4 more replies

budu39y ago

East Africa, maybe Kenya.

nemesisj9y ago

Dubai. Yes, not actually in Africa, but much closer to the area and relatively stable. Also, there's plenty of activity going on in the Middle East that would justify this (I think).

2 more replies

bdcravens9y ago

Tunisia may be an option

oblio9y ago

At this point it seems that big US companies are too afraid to invest in Africa.

Which is kind of strange, since they weren't afraid to invest in China or Iraq.

On top of this, funnily enough, the Chinese aren't afraid and by the time the US companies get going...

snackai9y ago

What? Comparing the situation in Africa to China? FFS, Hacker News...

bogomipz9y ago

>"At this point it seems that big US companies are too afraid to invest in Africa"

That statement is just plain wrong and uninformed.

Google, FB, IBM and Microsoft are all making significant investments in Africa. See the following:

http://fortune.com/2016/05/26/u-s-tech-giants-flock-to-afric...

The world's largest young populations are all in Africa and these companies know this:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/the-world-s-10-younge...

pdpi9y ago· 11 in thread

Have to wonder how much of the push for more EU AWS regions comes from dealing with a potential exodus from the London region due Brexit (e.g. because of data protection issues)

dazc9y ago

Data centre in Dublin is well established (UK centre is fairly new IIRC?) and there is zero chance of Ireland leaving the EU, so I doubt this is the reason.

rsynnott9y ago

The German one is also older than the UK one.

redcalx9y ago

I imagine the greater concern is the deep integration between the NSA, GCHQ and ISPs in the UK and USA.

sebcat9y ago

Sweden cooperates with the NSA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Establi...

Zolomon9y ago

Err.. The Swedish FRA[1] is in cahoots with the ones you mention. I doubt that's the concern.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Estab...

nallerooth9y ago

In Sweden we've got "FRA", which is one of NSA's BFFs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Radio_Establi...

metafunctor9y ago

FRA, the Swedish national authority for signals intelligence, is well-known for collaborating with the NSA.

reason_police9y ago

As if any first-world government weren't already monitoring everyone as best they can?

1 more reply

jk5639y ago

moonbug9y ago

Dude, you'd not believe how big the demand on the UK region is.

lucaspiller9y ago

Care to elaborate?

filleokus9y ago· 5 in thread

Interesting that AWS didn't chose to place their DC's at the "Node Pole" (http://thenodepole.com) in the northern parts of Sweden where FB have theirs.

lucideer9y ago

Slightly OT, but also interesting that the "Node Pole" host their website on AWS...

acd9y ago

Most likely to be closer to the capital Stockholm, main Internet exchange and startups in Sweden. Further more you will have better latency to the rest of Nordics closer to Stockholm.

Population density of the Nordics https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden#/media/File:Norden_pop_...

Spiritus9y ago

I'm actually disappointed they went with Stockholm. Though I can understand why (proximity to a large pool of talent among other things).

jacquesm9y ago

Even the (very large) Google data centers typically do not employ more than 100 people, that's 30 people over 3 shifts and some overhead.

2 more replies

pathy9y ago

They aren't actually located in Stockholm, but close enough to use resources from the Stockholm Area. Supposedly the DCs will be located in Västerås, Eskilstuna and Katrineholm[0].

[0] http://digital.di.se/artikel/amazon-oppnar-tre-datacenter-i-...

1 more reply

metricodus9y ago· 2 in thread

That's a slightly awkward looking reference customer list (assuming that's what it is).

mrweasel9y ago

May I ask why? Is it just because you don't know them?

metricodus9y ago

I know them, but those startup names are hardly household names even in Sweden.

1 more reply

mindjiver9y ago

eatbitseveryday9y ago

Also an entry on Werner Vogel's blog about this.

http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2017/04/aws-announces-eu...

CodeSheikh9y ago

Morocco, South Africa, Dubai could be new regions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse