Perception Is Reality: ‘Real Benefits’ With AWS Region Launch

While AWS touted the value of its investment in New Zealand along with the many jobs likely to flow from the establishment of a new region, partner and solutions provider Lancom Technology points to real and immediate benefits for resellers and their customers. CEO Priscila Bernardes notes the primary advantage is an easier path to the cloud for those still reluctant to make the move – and says while not quite as headline-grabbing, it is this that will drive positive change. 

“We’ve got some of the world’s best internet infrastructure thanks to the fibre network, and as a result we’ve enjoyed excellent access to data centre infrastructure in Sydney and beyond,” she says. “Establishing the new region doesn’t materially change the type of services and solutions we get. What it does change more than anything else, is perception.” 

As an AWS Launch Partner for the region, Lancom Technology has engaged extensively with its client base assessing where the advantages lie. Speaking at AWS Cloud Day Auckland, Country Manager Manual Bohnet said AWS has built the world's most reliable infrastructure with multiple layers of technology. “A recent Frost and Sullivan study found that AWS achieves 99.54% uptime across APAC, the highest across all cloud providers.” 

Better access to cloud infrastructure and services, added Bohnet, allows a focus on creating solutions to problems that matter. “New Zealand has always punched above its weight in global innovation, from pioneering digital government services to world leading software and climate tech solutions, and key organizations are using AWS.” 

Speaking at the launch, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon recognized AWS’ contribution to developing the nation. “We are going to build the most advanced, small country on Earth. And I think a lot of the future and a lot of the ideas are here. The investment today by AWS of $7.5 billion dollars is a great example of how we need to welcome companies, people and ideas that can improve the lives of New Zealanders. I know that for many of the companies here, some of New Zealand's most prominent technology companies, have built their services on AWS technology.” 

There are more organizations that can and now will benefit thanks to the local region, continues Bernardes. “Perception is reality. For many potential cloud customers, the idea of offshoring crucial data and applications is anathema. Whether for perceived security risks, or reliability and availability worries, or very real data sovereignty reasons, this does and has prevented some from making the shift into the cloud, despite the widely demonstrated, and widely accepted benefits of doing so.” 

Those benefits include elimination of on-premises hardware and related maintenance overheads, access to a far wider range of services and products supporting innovation, improved security, and reliability and availability far exceeding anything possible on private infrastructure. 

Local hosting in the AWS Auckland Region directly addresses those concerns, with features including three physically independent Availability Zones providing low latency and high availability, and in-country data storage running workloads locally. 

Bernardes points to eased migration pathways, an issue which she says crops up routinely in the field. “We have clients who want to move to the cloud but cannot make a wholesale shift for various reasons,” she explains. “The local Region means these clients now have a more viable option to perform staged migrations, with some infrastructure remaining on premises, while other aspects of their stack move on to AWS.” 

She says this builds confidence by demonstrating value, performance, and feature advantages. “Sure, there are proofs of concept, and we run those regularly. But the tyranny of distance is now removed; it means workloads are essentially co-located, management and migration is eased, and – again – there’s the peace of mind associated with the perception of remoteness now relegated to the past.” 

And that, says Bernardes, is the real story of where growth, innovation and advancement will happen.