Amazon Web Services sets up Tokyo cloud outlet

Amazon Web Services has set up an outlet for its cloud-computing business in Tokyo, its second in Asia and its fifth regional outlet overall.

The launch of the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region business on Wednesday will let Amazon Web Services (AWS) bring its the cloud service closer to Japanese customers physically, legally and culturally. The other AWS Asia Pacific Region outlet, opened in Singapore in April, already serves Japanese customers, but the separation — by miles and jurisdiction — made it impractical or forbidden for Japan. In his AWS blog, Jeff Barr, Amazon's lead web services evangelist, said the Tokyo region was a response to Japanese customers who told him they needed a Japan-based offering.

"Over the years I have learned that there's really no substitute for sitting down, face to face, with customers and potential customers. You can learn things in a single meeting that might not be obvious after a dozen emails. You can also get a sense for the environment in which they (and their users or customers) have to operate. For example, developers in Japan have told me that latency and in-country data storage are of great importance to them," Barr wrote.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Amazon Web Services opens in Japan, not China on ZDNet.com.