04-04-2017
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company has announced that it plans to open an infrastructure region in Sweden in 2018. The new AWS EU (Stockholm) Region will comprise of three Availability Zones at launch. Currently, AWS provides 42 Availability Zones across 16 infrastructure regions worldwide, with another five Availability Zones, across two AWS Regions in France and China, expected to come online this year.
Amazon Web Services has been steadily increasing its investment in the Nordic region to serve its growing base of customers. In 2011, AWS opened a Point of Presence in Stockholm to enable customers to serve content to their end users with low latency. In 2014 and 2015 respectively, AWS opened offices in Stockholm and Espoo, Finland. When launched, the AWS EU (Stockholm) Region will enable organisations to provide even lower latency to end users across the Nordics. Additionally, local AWS customers with data sovereignty requirements will be able to store their data in Sweden with the assurance that their content will not move.
One Nordic enterprise that is using AWS to innovate is ASSA ABLOY, a leader in door opening solutions, with over 47,000 employees and annual sales of US$8.3bn worldwide. The company’s hospitality division is using AWS to power their Mobile Access solution, allowing hotels to offer their guests the ability to check-in via mobile phone and to use their device as their room key.
Another well-known Nordic enterprise using AWS to transform their organisation is Scania, a manufacturer of heavy vehicles. Scania is training hundreds of their employees on the latest AWS technologies, enabling them to develop and build reliable, secure, and scalable solutions quickly. Scania is now planning to use AWS for their connected vehicle systems, allowing truck owners to track their vehicles, collect real-time running data, and run diagnostics to understand when maintenance is needed, reducing vehicle downtime.