E-commerce giant Amazon, which is a leader in cloud computing services with its AmazonWeb Services (AWS), has decided to invest a whopping Rs 20,761 crore ($ 2.77 Bn) in Telangana. IT Minister KTR took to Twitter to make the announcement. Amazon plans to set up multiple data centres in Telangana. KTR said that this would be the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the history of Telangana.
Earlier this year, there were speculations about Amazon Web Services considering setting up two data centres near Hyderabad. The total investment was speculated to be around Rs 11,630 crore (around $1.6 billion). However, with the announcement on Friday, it is evident that the company decided to invest way more than the initial plans.
According to the government of Telangana, AWS is investing to setup an AWS Region with three Availability Zones (AZs) in Hyderabad. The AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region is expected to start operations by mid of 2022. AZs consist of multiple data centres in separate distinct locations within a single region that are engineered to be operationally independent of one another with independent power, cooling, physical security, and connections via a low-latency network.
Amazon Investment Will Be Largest FDI In Telangana
The release from the Telangana government said, “AWS will establish data centres in three locations with an overall estimated capital investment of approx. $ 2.77 Bn (Rs 20761 Cr). The investment from AWS would position Telangana one of the preferred destinations for other companies that are looking to set up data centres in the future. Establishment of data centres like AWS is expected to support Telangana’s digital economy and IT sector in a multi-fold way. The new AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region will enable even more developers, startups, and enterprises as well as government, education, and non-profit organisations to run their applications and serve end-users from data centres located in India. Establishment of data centres in a region will increase the operations of sectors such as e-commerce, public sector, banking and financial services (BFSI), IT, and more.”
According to the government, “AWS chose Hyderabad because of the support provided by the government of Telangana, robust policy framework, and because it best met the rigorous requirements for an AWS Region."
KT Ramarao, Minister for IT, Industry and Commerce had met officials from AWS during his Davos visit earlier in the year. On the occasion of this investment announcement, the minister said, “This investment from AWS is going to be the largest FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) that the state has attracted since the inception and will act as a strong anchor for attracting other technology investments. AWS choosing Hyderabad as their preferred destination speaks volumes about the swiftness with which the government operates and also the transparency in the system. This investment further strengthens the existing relationship that Telangana enjoys with Amazon. We, at Hyderabad, are already hosting the largest office campus of Amazon.”
Jeff Barr, the Chief Evangelist for AWS, wrote in a blog, “Today, I am happy to announce that the AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region is in the works, and will open in mid-2022 with three Availability Zones. This will be our second region in India and our eleventh region in Asia, joining existing regions in Australia, India, Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. AWS customers are already making use of 77 Availability Zones across 24 regions worldwide. Today’s announcement brings the total number of global regions (operational and in the works) up to 29.”
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
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