The launch of a new AWS region in New Zealand is expected to bring tangible benefits to resellers and their customers as cloud adoption expands.

Lancom Technology, a partner and solutions provider for AWS, has highlighted that the biggest impact will be in shifting perceptions and enabling organisations that have been hesitant to move to the cloud.

CEO Priscila Bernardes of Lancom Technology said the change is less about expanding service capabilities and more about helping overcome psychological barriers.

“We’ve got some of the world’s best internet infrastructure thanks to the fibre network, and as a result we’ve enjoyed excellent access to data centre infrastructure in Sydney and beyond,” she says. “Establishing the new region doesn’t materially change the type of services and solutions we get. What it does change more than anything else, is perception.”

Lancom Technology’s team has worked with clients to assess where the advantages of a domestic AWS region will appear. The company has found that showing clients a local option changes the discussions around data placement, security, and compliance.

Reliability and capacity

At AWS Cloud Day Auckland, AWS Country Manager Manual Bohnet noted the reliability of the AWS global network. Bohnet said, “A recent Frost and Sullivan study found that AWS achieves 99.54% uptime across APAC, the highest across all cloud providers.” He added that better access to cloud infrastructure enables organisations to focus more on solving important problems. “New Zealand has always punched above its weight in global innovation, from pioneering digital government services to world leading software and climate tech solutions, and key organizations are using AWS.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon acknowledged AWS’s role in national development and discussed the importance of attracting investment. He said, “We are going to build the most advanced, small country on Earth. And I think a lot of the future and a lot of the ideas are here. The investment today by AWS of $7.5 billion dollars is a great example of how we need to welcome companies, people and ideas that can improve the lives of New Zealanders. I know that for many of the companies here, some of New Zealand’s most prominent technology companies, have built their services on AWS technology.”

Shifting to the cloud

Bernardes outlined that a local AWS region helps address concerns for organisations that have to date avoided cloud migration.

“Perception is reality. For many potential cloud customers, the idea of offshoring crucial data and applications is anathema. Whether for perceived security risks, or reliability and availability worries, or very real data sovereignty reasons, this does and has prevented some from making the shift into the cloud, despite the widely demonstrated, and widely accepted benefits of doing so.”

The benefits Bernardes referred to include reducing reliance on on-premises hardware, avoiding the associated maintenance overheads, and gaining access to a broader array of services that can support organisational innovation. Improved security, increased reliability, and higher availability than is possible with most private infrastructure are also cited advantages.

The AWS Auckland region offers in-country data hosting and three physically independent Availability Zones, which together provide low latency, high availability, and in-country workload execution. This directly addresses previous concerns around data sovereignty, security, and access.

Easier migrations

Ease of migration has become a central topic among clients, according to Bernardes. She noted the importance of being able to support partial or staged migrations as organisations adjust their IT footprint.

“We have clients who want to move to the cloud but cannot make a wholesale shift for various reasons,” she explains. “The local Region means these clients now have a more viable option to perform staged migrations, with some infrastructure remaining on premises, while other aspects of their stack move on to AWS.”

Bernardes added that having a local region makes proofs of concept more compelling by reducing latency and management overheads. “Sure, there are proofs of concept, and we run those regularly. But the tyranny of distance is now removed; it means workloads are essentially co-located, management and migration is eased, and – again – there’s the peace of mind associated with the perception of remoteness now relegated to the past.”

She believes these factors will contribute to growth, innovation, and advancement for organisations as the uptake of cloud services increases locally.