Thread: Amazon Web Services to build data centers in Jakarta

Amazon Web Services (AWS) will build an infrastructure “region” in Jakarta by the end of next year or early 2022 in the biggest investment in Indonesia's the information and technology sector, a high-ranking official has said.


Jakarta will also have three Availability Zones consisting of several interconnected data centers, according to the Industry Ministry.


An AWS region is a physical location where its data centers are clustered. Each region consists of multiple, isolated and physically separate Availability Zones within an area.


An Availability Zone is one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking and connectivity in an AWS region, according to the company's website.


“This investment can boost Indonesia to become a strategic digital hub,” Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang said after a meeting with AWS global public policy vice president Michael Punke during the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, as quoted in a statement on Thursday.


The development of an ASW region, he added, could also accelerate the transformation of the nation’s small and medium companies as well as big corporations in various sectors toward industry 4.0.


“The AWS region in Indonesia will certainly support the startup ecosystem so it can grow rapidly,” Agus added. “It can also help create more jobs and companies in the technology sector.”


The value of the country’s digital economy was projected to reach US$40 billion in 2019, up from $27 billion a year before, according to the annual e-Conomy SEA 2019 report by technology giant Google, Singaporean holding company Temasek and management consulting firm Bain & Company. The value is expected to triple to $130 billion by 2025.


The ministry’s metal, machinery, transportation and electronics director general, Harjanto, said that AWS’ investment was “the biggest investment realization in the ICT [information and communication technology] sector to date,” although he did not disclose the figure.


AWS is a subsidiary of United States-based technology company Amazon that offers analytics technology, artificial intelligent, Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning services, among other services.


Jakarta will join Hong Kong, Beijing and Ningxia in China, Mumbai in India, Seoul in South Korea, Singapore, Tokyo in Japan and Sydney in Australia as AWS regions in the Asia-Pacific. There are 14 other regions across the globe.


The government will also partner with AWS to provide cloud computing training for “hundreds of thousands of Indonesians” by 2025.


Indonesia has been looking to secure investments from multinational corporations at the WEF, such as Singaporean ride-hailing giant Grab, Japanese financial services firm Mizuho, state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Chinese dairy giant Yili Group, to boost the country’s economic growth.


Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) data showed that overall realized investment totaled Rp 601.3 trillion ($44 billion), a 12.3 percent increase year-on-year (yoy), from January to September 2019.


While domestic investment grew 17.3 percent to Rp 283.5 trillion, foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 8.2 percent yoy to Rp 317.8 trillion.

Amazon Web Services to build data centers in Jakarta: Minister - Business - The Jakarta Post

what could possibly go wrong building a Data Center in some SE Asia shithole like Indonesia?

^massive growing population and data localisation laws make that a safe bet. And IMHO it’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world, far from being a shithole

I thought they were moving the capital out of Jakarta coz its too crowded, poor infra and its sinking?

Originally Posted by knowsitlike

^massive growing population and data localisation laws make that a safe bet. And IMHO it’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world, far from being a shithole

Jakarta is not a shithole? I beg to differ, and the country is an economic and political shithole

we are not talking environment and tourism destination here,

I've spent most of the last couple of years in the planning, construction and deployment of 2 large banking data centres in Indonesia. One for production workload and another for disaster recovery of the first. All for data processes that were previously performed offshore.

I can see years of work ahead as more countries decide that they want data processing "onshore".

Originally Posted by TizMe

I've spent most of the last couple of years in the planning, construction and deployment of 2 large banking data centres in Indonesia. One for production workload and another for disaster recovery of the first. All for data processes that were previously performed offshore.

I can see years of work ahead as more countries decide that they want data processing "onshore".

yeah, but these are property projects at the end, not IT. Banks in Europe used to do the same, now they are selling those data centers back to Amazon and other Property Funds specialized in Data Centers.

For regulatory reasons in Europe it makes sense, but SE Asia? Singapore fine, but having data off those politically shit countries is actually an advantage, not a liability.

In Laos, they have been building those data centers for the Chinese, but for private businesses, what's the point? they are better off hosting all that crap to Europe or even the US (maybe a political risk there too)

Sinking city . . .
Moving the capital to Borneo . . .
Unreliable power . . .

Yea, odd choice, also given the low purchasing power of most Indons

^ do a google for data localisation laws, it will explain a lot

Originally Posted by knowsitlike

^ do a google for data localisation laws, it will explain a lot

Will do, thanks

indeed come western international compliance thing (GDPR for one) like the EU ask for a local data housing, but don't think such international regulations exist for SE Asia, let alone Indonesia, and not clear how the laws could enforce it.

anyway, AWS, GCP are all buying up the rest of world data centers solutions, slowly but surely

and global corporations love their AWS, GCP, Azure clouds

Originally Posted by knowsitlike

^ do a google for data localisation laws, it will explain a lot

Is this another one that doesn't want government data stored outside the country?

Indonesia Government Regulation No. 82 of 2012 on the Implementation of Electronic Systems and Transactions was enacted on 15 October 2012.
Originally there was a 5 year transition period for implementation.

It specified that Electronic System Operators that provide public services were required by October 2017 to have data centers and disaster recovery centers in Indonesia as part of their business continuity plans.

There was varying interpretations of exactly what "public services" means, but it was indicated that it included banking and insurance as well as government institutions.

Some negotiation was done to extend the deadlines.

So, in a nutshell, if AWS want to do business with Indonesian government departments, banks or insurance companies (whether local or multinationals) then they have to build data centres in Indonesia.

Malaysia & India are also in the process of introducing the same type of legislation.