Google Plans Hong Kong GCP Region For 2018

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)’s next new region will be in Hong Kong, with data centres serving businesses and public sector organisations going live in early 2018.

The region will be Google’s sixth in Asia-Pacific, joining Mumbai, Singpaore, Sydney, Taiwan and Tokyo.

The company says the new region will provide high performance and low latency for applications while three availability zones will protect against service disruptions.

GCP Hong Kong region

Google claims the launch will boost Hong Kong’s digital economy and smart city initiatives while the government believes it will help attract more business.

“A solid cloud infrastructure is the foundation for building a smart city and helping businesses succeed in the digital economy,” said Nicholas Wang, Hong Kongs’ secretary for Innovation and Technology.

“We are glad that Google is launching the Hong Kong cloud region, a recognition of Hong Kong’s edge and strengths as a data hub. This means businesses in Hong Kong, whether big or small, can leverage the latest, well-established technology infrastructure to expand and succeed in the region and globally.”

Google has launched several new regions in recent months as it seeks to keep pace with public cloud rivals such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud.

This has included London, where a new region opened in June, as well as other locations in Europe including Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.

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