AWS launches new edge location in New Zealand

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has today launched a new AWS location in Auckland, providing connectivity to the AWS network that spans more than 220 points of presence in 44 countries.

With the local edge location, AWS says that customers can expect up to a 50% improvement in latency for data that flows through it.

Furthermore, the location enables more support for AWS edge services, such as the content delivery network Amazon CloudFront, and the AWS Global Accelerator that supports end user traffic with availability and performance improvements.

AWS adds that Amazon CloudFront integrates with other AWS services including Amazon S3, Elastic Load Balancing or Amazon EC2 as origins for applications, and Lambda@Edge to run custom code closer to end users and to customise the user experience.

AWS New Zealand commercial sector managing director Nick Walton says the new edge location will help to deliver faster digital content, including video, music, web shows, and notifications.

"Using the Amazon CloudFront CDN can be considered best practice for securing access to content and protecting sensitive customer data. By using AGA, WAF and AWS Shield in parallel, customers can set protocols, encryption, and protect against common web threats to ensure compliance to regulatory standards without sacrificing performance.

CloudFront also provides data protection as part of an integration with AWS Shield. This enables CloudFront to defend against cyber attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and network attacks.

"The launch of our first AWS edge location in New Zealand demonstrates AWS's commitment to helping local customers innovate and build, increase productivity, expand into new markets, and enhance the nation's digital infrastructure," says Walton.

AWS says the edge location also includes connections to New Zealand telcos, including the New Zealand Internet Exchange, 2degrees, Kordia, Spark, Trustpower, Vocus, and Vodafone.

Kordia's head of network products Murray Goodman says the new AWS edge location will augment its existing AWS connectivity.

"We look forward to helping our customers take advantage of the business benefits presented by the AWS edge location, such as reduced latency of web applications and increased speeds in serving real-time digital content including video, music, web-native shows, and notifications.

Spark New Zealand product director Tessa Tierney says the company welcomes the AWS edge location to support fast, low latency, and secure access.

"As New Zealanders spend more time working and entertaining at home, working with AWS to improve the delivery of real-time, high-resolution content into Kiwi homes has never been more important.

AWS has offices in Auckland and Wellington. It provides services to customers including Air New Zealand, Contact Energy, Soul Machines, Vector, and the University of Auckland.

The company launched AWS Outposts in New Zealand earlier this year.