Dive Brief:

• Both Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced global cloud data center expansion plans on Wednesday. Google opened a new cloud data center in Sydney, Australia, according to a Google blog. Meanwhile, AWS announced plans open an AWS Region in Hong Kong next year, according to an AWS blog.
• For Google, it’s the first region in Australia and the fourth in Asia Pacific. Google is already building another region in Mumbai, as well as new network infrastructure to link them all together.
• AWS launched new AWS regions in Canada, India, Korea, the U.K. and the United States last year.

Dive Insight:

Both Google and AWS have been making large-scale infrastructure investments as part of their continuing efforts to land cloud customers. Regional data centers provide customers a better experience and less latency and can also help the cloud provider meet regional privacy and data-storage requirements like those required under the coming GDPR.

Google's performance testing shows 80% to 95% reductions in latency when serving customers from New Zealand and Australia from Sydney rather than from Singapore or Taiwan, according to the company. 

Google, AWS and Microsoft have all been building new cloud data centers at a rapid pace, and all three now have a significant global presence. A few areas of the world remain fairly underrepresented, however, such as Africa and large parts of South America.  

But that may not last for long.  Microsoft announced in May that it plans to open two data centers in South Africa, one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town. Cloud companies willing to expand to underserved areas could get first crack at customers in those countries who are looking to launch or expand their cloud efforts.