Cloud computing in China is going to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the tech economy over the next ten years, and Amazon Web Services signaled its intention to grab as much of that business as it can with the opening of a second region in the country.
AWS announced late Monday that it has agreed to partner with Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology Co. to open a computing region in the relatively remote Ningxia region, adding to a region hosted in Beijing. Chinese law requires that foreign companies wishing to do cloud business in China partner with a local company that is responsible for actually operating the service.
Cloud computing is a growth industry no matter where you are, but a lot of onlookers expect China to eventually become one of the biggest markets on the planet for cloud services. Homegrown companies like Alibaba and Baidu are expected to win most of that market share, but even a slice of this market could still mean big bucks.
The announcement of the new region comes a month after a confusing series of local media reports indicated AWS was about to exit China, only to be quickly rebutted by the company.
