Amazon Web Services plans expansion

Venkatesh Ganesh Updated - August 02, 2013 at 10:18 PM.

In its first big move towards making India its tech hub, Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to open more locations in India.

The technology arm of online retailer Amazon has opened two locations in India - in Mumbai and Chennai. CloudFront edges are physical locations where server computers are hosted and services such as Web site content and online videos are delivered through AWS’ technology on a pay-per-use basis.

This can be done by connecting to a global network of locations instead of having to set up Web server computers in specified locations. AWS CloudFront, which is based on cloud computing technology, also plans to set up more such locations, depending on customer requirements, according to officials.

Talking to

Business Line , Shane Owenby, Managing Director, APAC of AWS, said: “The growing customer base and requests from India and multinationals based out of here were one of the main reasons for opening up a location here.”

“International expansion is key for us and we will make our decisions based on what users in India tell us,” he added

Further, it will have capabilities such as hosting an entire Web site, live and on-demand streaming media and security features such as custom Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates,” he said. According to company sources, since its India foray, the company has bagged 8,000 customers, which include a mix of Indian companies like Eros International and multinational tech companies like Foursquare and Pinterest.

AWS has priced its offering from $0.17 for usage of 10 TB/ month onwards, which according to the company, is the most competitive when compared to others.

With increased usage of the Internet in India, which has around 125 million users, companies are ramping up their Internet presence. These services offer the flexibility to rapidly scale IT infrastructure as they grow without spending precious capital on hardware or getting locked into a long-term contract with a co-location facility, according to analysts.

Organisations in India do not have the mindset of Do-It-Yourself and this would be a big challenge, said an IT analyst.

>venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

Published on August 2, 2013 16:48