Amazon unveils new Frankfurt datacentres

Amazon Web Services now has 11 global locations

Amazon has unveiled plans to expand its Amazon Web Services (AWS) brand in Europe with datacentres in Frankfurt.

The new German "infrastructure region" will be the 11th for AWS globally and the second in the EU, joining its existing site in Ireland.

Amazon claims the new datacentres will allow customers to use AWS to build their businesses and run applications on infrastructure located in Germany.

Andy Jassy, senior vice president of AWS, said: "Our European business continues to grow dramatically.

"By opening a second European region, and situating it in Germany, we are enabling German customers to move more workloads to AWS, allowing European customers to architect across multiple EU regions, and better balancing our substantial European growth."

AWS claims it is fully compliant with all applicable EU data protection laws.

The news of Amazon's new German datacentres comes hot on the heels of VMware, which said it was opening a facility in the country soon too.

IDC praised the move as "an important step for AWS".

"In the past, AWS had been criticised for concentrating all European availability zones in Ireland," it said.

"By adding the Frankfurt facility, AWS not only plants its presence firmly in Europe's largest economy but provides greater redundancy for all European customers in case any of the five EU availability zones are adversely affected."