Summary Bullets:
- Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts will address the increasing need for data storage and drive edge computing requirements in the region.
- The traction for hosted storage is aligned with the growing cloud adoption in the region; enterprise spending on cloud is expected to increase by 6% in 2020.
Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts
AWS announced the availability of Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts across its global footprints to meet customers’ demands for low-latency applications, local data processing, and data residency. Based on the same APIs and tools used for the Amazon S3 on AWS Regions, the solution offers consistent experience and performance to enterprises for management and orchestration of workload across different locations.
The ASEAN Opportunities
While Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts is one of many new features added by the leading cloud provider for edge computing, it means more than that in the ASEAN region. It will address one of the main challenges with data storage for ASEAN enterprises by offering scalable, secure, and durable solutions in a physical location closer to the customers’ existing systems – either in the customers’ own facilities or in those of a colocation partner. For many years, there has been a drastic increase in enterprises’ business data, driven by various transformation initiatives such as digitalizing operational processes and customer information. However, for ASEAN enterprises, storing data on their own infrastructure/server is still the default approach despite limited scalability, integration across different applications, and an overall increased operational burden. Solutions with in-country data hosting have been offered by local providers for some time, but with limited product options and innovations compared to services offered by hyperscalers. With the extension of object storage services to customer premises and local data centers, enterprises will have access to more services such as a wider range of storage classes and advanced analytics. The increasing workload migration to the hyperscalers’ public cloud services will also enable more orchestration across applications and databases through the same APIs and tools used in the region.
Besides, Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts will also address the increasing edge computing requirements across different verticals in the region. Edge computing may still be too early in ASEAN, but there is a growing interest in the market from various players across industries. For example, Thailand shared its ambition to achieve 100 smart cities by 2022, which will involve various data such as environment, utilities, transportation, surveillance, and health. This includes bandwidth-hungry applications that would leverage local storage and computing capabilities to minimize transmission costs. There are also several autonomous vehicle initiatives in key ASEAN verticals such as remote offshore operations (e.g., remote drilling) in oil & gas as well as the use of remote tractors and drones in agriculture.
The traction for hosted storage is also aligned with the growing cloud adoption in the region. A GlobalData survey with 591 ASEAN ICT decision-makers shows that enterprises in the region are spending 53% of their ICT budget on cloud services in 2020, 6% more than the previous year (source: ”Global IT Customer Insight 2020”). This is expected to drive the cloud market to grow from US$13.3 billion in 2019 to US$20.6 billion in 2024. For more, please see “ASEAN ICT Spending: Steady Growth in the Next Five Years Despite a Slight Decline This Year Due to COVID-19,” (September 29, 2020).
The next part of this post, “Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts – An ASEAN Perspective – Part 2: What’s Next For Providers and Buyers,” discusses the key recommendations for AWS, other providers, and buyers.
IT Connection 