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Kansas City to see Amazon cloud expansion in 2021

Technology expansion plans for the e-commerce giant include bringing an Amazon Web Services local zone to the area next year. Kansas City is one of 12 U.S. cities the company will expand its cloud-based services to, which it says will provide seamless access to services to business customers.

The expansion of Amazon technology services to businesses and customers across the U.S. is part of an effort by the company’s subsidiary Amazon Web Services Inc. to expand use of its cloud-based data center tools.

E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. is stretching its reach even further in the area of cloud computing services, and the Kansas City area will play into the company’s technology expansion plans.

Amazon said Tuesday that its Amazon Web Services Inc. subsidiary would bring a “local zone” to Kansas City in 2021, according to a news release. The move will give customers a quicker way to use the company’s computing, storage and other tech services.

It’s part of a broader effort by Amazon Web Services, or AWS, to bring cloud-based data center tools to more parts of the U.S. Already, it’s in parts of Los Angeles, and the announcement Tuesday adds several cities to the mix, including Houston, Boston and Miami. Kansas City is among 12 other U.S. cities slated to get the new capabilities next year, along with Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle.

Amazon has massive data centers around the world, but local zones can help make technology services quicker for end users. This is especially needed for certain types of applications such as real-time gaming or live-video streaming. In those cases, its customers want AWS’ gear closer to the actual people playing a new title or watching a movie.

Businesses “no longer need to incur the expense or effort of procuring, operating, and maintaining data centers or co-location facilities in various cities to support ultra-low latency applications,” the company said in the announcement.

Last year, Amazon was the No. 1 provider of a key area of cloud, according to global IT research and advisory firm Gartner, holding 45 percent market share.