Arcus Global
January 19, 2018
AWS recently announced the arrival of their 50th Availability Zone (AZ – which is defined as a data centre or centres that have separate risk profiles to other AZ’s, which work together to form a region e.g. London).
What’s surprising is not that AWS has opened a new AZ, we’re more accustomed to them announcing whole new regions at this point, but where this new AZ is – London.
In my experience when some of the newer regions pop up they tend to operate with the minimal viable number of AZ’s – which is 2. This was the case in Frankfurt, Canada, London etc. Some still have only 2 AZ’s like Singapore which opened on 29th April 2010!
While regions like Frankfurt have now grown to 3 AZ’s it could be fairly assumed that this growth requirement is based on demand. AWS are practical and will not build another AZ (or region) without there being a demand for it.
So, let’s look at the comparative timelines:
Frankfurt opened on the 23rd October 2014. It achieved a 3rd AZ on 16th June 2017. That’s just under 32 months.
London opened on the 13th December 2016. A 3rd AZ opened on the 15th January 2018. That’s 13 months.
We can all argue about rates of cloud adoption and growth over the years and the various factors affecting each region etc. etc. but it cannot be denied that there is obviously a high demand for cloud, and AWS in particular, in the UK.
The London, UK, region.
As well as large private sector organisations taking on all-in cloud adoption programmes, the UK public sector is incredibly well served by the London region.
AWS have achieved PSN compliance and offer both PSN and N3/HSCN connectivity (through partners) in order to give UK public sector organisations the confidence they need to really get into the cloud.
Arcus Global has been able to help UK public sector organisations take advantage of the London region and help them build and manage UK OFFICIAL applications and services in the AWS cloud.
Our managed services and cloud management platform (CMaas) fully supports organisations, like the NHS Business Services Authority and the newly renamed Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, in running national level applications and services.
We are also continually helping our customers innovate their services using the AI platforms and capabilities that will drive services into the 21st century.
Now that the flood gates are well and truly open, get in touch with us today to see how we can help you take advantage of the rising tide.
