Amazon.com Inc’s data center operation is much larger than commonly understood, totaling more than 900 facilities in more than 50 countries, documents reviewed by Bloomberg and investigative Web site SourceMaterial showed.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is best known for sprawling data center hubs in Virginia and Oregon, but those enormous complexes, which the company owns or operates through long-term leases, do not account for its full footprint.
The cloud unit also stashes server racks in hundreds of so-called colocation facilities, renting space that as of last year provided about one-fifth of the computing power at Amazon’s disposal, the documents showed.
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Called “colos” in the industry, the rented data centers are typically sub-divided among different clients. The AWS presence in such facilities ranges from a few server racks in a dedicated room to most or all of enormous buildings in places such as Frankfurt and Tokyo, it showed.
AWS does not disclose the locations of individual data centers for security reasons and to keep operational details out of the hands of competitors.
The documents shine a light on Amazon’s cloud computing operations at a time when investors are keen for insights into whether AWS has sufficient capacity to meet the enormous computing demands for artificial intelligence (AI).
They also showed that AWS is one of the world’s largest renters of colo space, suggesting it has the flexibility to offer customers a range of services around the globe.
“There are big data centers everyone talks about, but the reality is there are also these smaller cloud resources that are invisible,” said Nic Benders, chief technical strategist at New Relic, which helps businesses manage their technology infrastructure. “The cloud providers do not like to tell you where they are.”
As of early last year, AWS was relying on more than 440 colocation data centers. The company also operated from more than 220 additional rented “edge” locations, which provide access points to Amazon’s network near major metropolitan areas, often inside telecommunications hubs operated by third parties. The company’s presence at some of these sites is designed to give customers the ability to quickly route data from their own servers or those of other cloud providers to Amazon’s infrastructure.
AWS spokesperson Aisha Johnson said Amazon’s approach to data centers “balances ownership with flexibility,” and was driven by rising demand for AWS services.
“While we own and operate the majority of our data centers, we strategically leverage third-party options when they provide additional capacity or geographic reach,” she said. “This long-term planning approach allows us to make precise decisions that align with our customers’ evolving requirements.”
AWS is the world’s largest seller of rented computing power, although that leadership position is being tested by rivals such as Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google, which have seen their sales surge alongside the rollout of AI services.
Still, Amazon’s cloud unit produced US$33 billion in revenue in the third quarter and remains the company’s most-profitable division, contributing US$11.4 billion in operating income in the period.
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