Amazon is continuing to push its AWS business in Asia after it announced plans to expand its cloud computing platform to India next year.
The AWS foray into India follows the service’s localization in China last year, and it comes at a time when India’s startup scene is growing at speed. The country’s biggest players — which include billion dollar e-commerce platforms Snapdeal and Flipkart, Alibaba-backed mobile wallet Paytm and Uber rival Ola — are scaling at rapid clip, and with that comes increasingly complicated server and infrastructure demands which Amazon hopes a localized AWS service can cover.
It isn’t just new companies that AWS is aiming to serve, though, more traditional businesses are a core part of its target base, too. On that note, Amazon said its initial launch partners will include automobile giant Tata Motors, media firm NDTV, and national flower retail chain Ferns N Petals.
AWS is already available in India, but locating servers in the country will improve service for existing customers and — AWS hopes — lure new businesses into the cloud, as Andy Jassy, a senior VP with AWS, explained in a statement:
Tens of thousands of customers in India are using AWS from one of AWS’s eleven global infrastructure regions outside of India. Several of these customers, along with many prospective new customers, have asked us to locate infrastructure in India so they can enjoy even lower latency to their end users in India and satisfy any data sovereignty requirements they may have.
Amazon namechecked a number of other existing AWS customers in India, including Hike, ZEDO, Freshdesk, Inmobi, Capillary Technologies, HackerEarth, Getit, Future Group, Manipal Global Education, Apeejay Stya and Svran Group.