AWS “ap-southeast-5” is live in Malaysia! What does that mean for all of us?

Figure 1 — AWS in Malaysia

On the 22nd of August, ap-southeast-5, Malaysia’s data centre in Kuala Lumpur, was formally announced 🥳. Coming up with 3 availability zones within Kuala Lumpur, the release of ap-southeast-5 is good news for all businesses, big or small, in this region!

But why is introducing a new region a good thing?

Firstly, it allows AWS users to retain data storage and processing needs within the geological boundaries of Malaysia. This is especially important for local businesses and software houses within Malaysia, who might want to keep sensitive user data within Malaysia.

Secondly, the location of Malaysia is perfect for operation at the centre of Southeast Asia (SEA), aside from its neighbour down south (Singapore)! It has been a proven fact that the closer your chosen data centre is to your business, the smaller the network latency impacting your users:

Figure 2 — AWS Architecture guidelines and decisions

Most importantly, with the inclusion of ap-southeast-5, this brings the total count of AWS regions in Asia Pacific up to 5, the existing ones being:

• ap-southeast-1 — Singapore