Amazon Web Services to boost Argentina presence with data 'Edge'

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Amazon Web Services (AWS), a unit of Amazon.com Inc, said on Thursday it will bolster its presence in Latin America with an “Edge” location in Argentina, its first in the country that will help speed up use for local users.

The so-called “Edge,” to be located in capital Buenos Aires, where AWS opened an office in April 2018, will help deliver data, videos and applications at higher speeds and improve cyber security, the company said.

An AWS spokeswoman declined to reveal the investment amount or how many jobs the location would create but said it would “indirectly generate positions and support to local workforce development.”

“We are always opening positions in the local market,” the spokeswoman said.

The location, which will be the seventh in Latin America, will go online this year. In March, AWS announced that Colombia would be its sixth Edge location. The others are in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

The announcement comes amid speculation about where in the region the tech giant will install its next data center, which would allow local companies and governments to store information on the cloud. Chile and Argentina are vying for Amazon’s investment.

In April, AWS said it will help astronomers in Chile crunch data gleaned from telescopes using its cloud computing services.

AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazon’s overall business. In the first quarter of 2019, it reported revenue of $7.7 billion, up by 41 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for nearly 13 percent of Amazon’s overall sales.