Why AWS is Committing $5bn to Thailand Cloud Infrastructure

The Asia-Pacific cloud computing market continues to expand as global technology firms invest in regional infrastructure to meet growing demand for digital services.

Now, South East Asia, with its population of 600 million and increasing digital adoption, has become a focus for data centre investments.

These developments come as financial institutions across the region modernise their technology infrastructure to serve a growing base of digital banking customers.

Against this backdrop, AWS has launched a new infrastructure region in Thailand backed by a US$5bn investment commitment and the company estimates the construction and operation will contribute US$10bn to Thailand's gross domestic product.

The deployment includes three availability zones - distinct locations within a region that house data centres - each operating with independent power, cooling and physical security systems and these zones connect through redundant networks engineered for minimal latency, allowing data to travel between points at high speeds.

AWS financial services customers lead Thai cloud migration

Thailand's financial sector has emerged as an early adopter of the new infrastructure.

Bank of Ayudhya, one of Thailand's largest banks, plans to expand its existing cloud programmes using the local infrastructure.

“As our strategic cloud provider, AWS plays a critical role in driving the Krungsri cloud program, which serves more than 12 million people. With a local Thailand Region, this will expand the Krungsri and AWS partnership tremendously and will significantly expand the possibilities,” says Pochara Vanaratseath, Head of IT at Bank of Ayudhya.

Meanwhile, Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG), which runs more than 400 applications on AWS's cloud platform, intends to use the regional deployment to enhance its service delivery.

“With the new AWS Thailand Region, we will easily enhance our network response times, be able to synchronize data more effectively, and consistently deliver superior financial services to our customers quickly and safely by relying on the world's most secure, reliable and available infrastructure,” says Tawan Jithavech, Chief Technology Officer at KBTG.

AWS Thailand infrastructure supports regional growth strategy

The investment increases AWS's global presence to 111 availability zones across 35 geographic regions.

Since 2020, AWS has constructed six edge locations in Thailand - data centres that cache content closer to users to reduce response times.

The company has also deployed AWS Local Zones in Bangkok for applications requiring response times of less than one millisecond, alongside AWS Outposts for hybrid cloud deployments combining on-premises and cloud infrastructure.                                                                                                                 

Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra views the investment as recognition of the country's technological potential: “I am pleased that Thailand's potential and readiness have been recognised by one of the world's leading companies.

“I look forward to AWS playing a pivotal role, in partnership with the government, in advancing Thailand toward a more inclusive digital society and expanding access to digital services for all citizens”, she adds.

Technical architecture focuses on energy efficiency

The technical architecture follows AWS's established design principles for maintaining business continuity while delivering performance.

The company has implemented measures to increase data centre energy efficiency through optimised design, purpose-built chips and cooling technology innovations.

According to a June 2024 report by Accenture, commissioned by AWS, the company's infrastructure operates with 4.1 times greater energy efficiency compared to on-premises deployments.

The report indicates that optimised workloads on AWS can reduce associated carbon emissions by up to 99%.

The deployment forms part of AWS's regional expansion strategy, with plans announced for 15 additional availability zones across Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and a European Sovereign Cloud deployment.

AWS will create roles spanning construction, maintenance, engineering, telecommunications and other areas within its supply chain.

Since 2017, the company has trained more than 50,000 individuals in Thailand in cloud computing skills, with AWS Academy running courses in more than 30 Thai universities.

“We continue to see rapid cloud adoption across Asia Pacific as more customers unlock the full potential of the world's most extensive, reliable, and secure cloud,” says Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS.

"This new AWS Region in Thailand will help customers across all industries deploy advanced applications with a broad set of AWS technologies that offer both core cloud capabilities, such as compute, storage, analytics and networking and services that enable customers to rapidly evolve, such as AI and machine learning.

“With today's launch, AWS is proud to support Thailand's digital transformation and help accelerate its role as a regional hub for AI."

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