AWS sharpens focus in APAC

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is sharpening its focus in APAC by doubling down on industry offerings and investing in cloud infrastructure and skills training to tap growth opportunities in the region, according to a regional company executive.

Speaking to Computer Weekly on the sidelines of AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas this week, Jaime Valles, vice-president and general manager of AWS in APAC and Japan, said the cloud supplier is “moving more and more into business outcomes and industry solutions”.

He said that in each of the 17 markets across the region, AWS has industry teams reporting to and working directly with their managing directors to better serve customers across industries, such as financial services in Southeast Asia, mining in Australia and gaming in South Korea.

To support these industry teams, AWS has started a “centre of expertise” staffed by industry experts who understand customer requirements and collaborate with partners to develop industry-specific offerings. Valles noted that AWS has made significant strides in its industry focus, particularly in financial services, with customers such as HDFC Bank in India, NAB in Australia and Sumitomo in Japan.

Additionally, AWS is making investments across the region to ensure each market has the necessary resources to operate the business with speed and agility, including infrastructure investments.

“Since 2010, we have invested tens of billions of dollars in the region – we have nine infrastructure regions and we have announced three regions that have not launched yet,” said Valles.

The company currently operates cloud regions in Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta and Seoul, with plans to open new regions in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Auckland.

Besides infrastructure investments, AWS is also doubling down on skills training programmes to equip customers with the skills they need to harness the full capabilities of cloud.

Valles, who led AWS’s Latin America business for eight years before he took up the APAC role this year, said the company has made a “conscious decision” to invest in cloud skills in APAC, where seven million people have been trained, half of whom were trained in the past year alone. He highlighted initiatives like AWS Skill Builder, made available to 600 customers across the region.

Meanwhile, AWS is looking to work with and support more partners to tap opportunities in the small and medium-sized enterprise segment, which constitutes the majority of businesses in the region. Then, there are also emerging opportunities in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), catching the business and IT worlds by storm.

While AWS has built a technology stack to support GenAI workloads, Valles emphasised the importance of understanding organisations’ goals with the technology. He stressed AWS’s approach to not only provide cloud infrastructure, but also offer a choice of models aligned with business outcomes, with a focus on safety and security.

Despite the current economic and political challenges impacting cloud spending growth, Synergy Research has noted clear evidence that GenAI technology and services are helping to overcome these barriers.

The cloud infrastructure market in APAC experienced its strongest growth in the third quarter of 2023 when measured in local currencies, with markets such as India, Australia and Japan growing by 20% or more year over year, according to the research firm.