Amazon Web Services, and Amazon.com have announced plans to launch an AWS Local Zone in Kenya. The new zone will join 16 existing Local Zones across the United States and an additional 32 AWS Local Zones planned for 26 countries across the world starting this year, 2022.

What is an AWS Local Zone:

AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that places AWS compute, storage, database, and other services at the edge of the cloud near large population, industry, and information technology (IT) centers—enabling customers to deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latency closer to end users or on-premises data centers. AWS Local Zones allow customers to use core AWS services locally while seamlessly connecting to the rest of their workloads running in AWS Regions with the same elasticity, pay-as-you-go model, application programming interfaces (APIs), and toolsets.

What’s the benefit of AWS Local Zones?

The new AWS Local Zones will give customers in Kenya the ability to offer end users single-digit millisecond performance designed to suit applications such as remote real-time gaming, media and entertainment content creation, live video streaming, engineering simulations, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning inference at the edge, and more.

Customers can connect to AWS Local Zones through an internet connection or use AWS Direct Connect—a cloud service that links an organization’s network directly to AWS to deliver consistent, secure, low-latency performance—to route traffic over a private AWS network connection.

Amazon Web Services manages and supports local zones. This means customers in Kenya will not need to incur the expense of procuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure in Nairobi to support low-latency applications.

AWS Local Zones also allow customers with local data residency requirements in Kenya to run parts of their applications in on-premises data centers and seamlessly connect to AWS while ensuring ultra-low latency for these types of hybrid deployments—all while using familiar AWS APIs and tools.

What they said:

“The new AWS Local Zone in Kenya is a continuation of our investment to support customers of all kinds and our commitment to accelerate innovation by bringing cloud infrastructure to more locations in the country. We know that delivering ultra-low latency applications for a seamless user experience matters in every business and industry, so we are excited to bring the edge of the cloud closer to more customers in Kenya to help meet their requirements. AWS Local Zones will empower more public and private organizations, innovative startups, and AWS partners to deliver a new generation of leading edge, low-latency applications to end users. Customers can take advantage of the cost savings, scalability, and high availability that AWS provides.” said Robin Njiru, Regional Lead, East, West and Central Africa at Amazon Web Services.

Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and YouthAffairs, Mr Joseph Mucheru said, “We are pleased to launch AWS Local Zone in Kenya. This announcement reaffirms our country’s position as an attractive place to invest, powered by a high volume of local talented developers. It will boost the adoption of advanced cloud-based technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things while helping to ensure secure use across the Kenyan technology sector.”

“We believe an AWS Local Zone will enable us to further enhance our cloud offerings, especially to our Enterprise and SME customers, and migrate more of our own services to the Cloud. Customer obsession remains a key focus for Safaricom and with this local presence driven by our partnership with Amazon, we will now achieve increased speed, stability, reliability, and storage to support innovation and development of future-fit solutions,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom PLC, a local partner of Amazon Web Services.