• Google Cloud will be building and equipping new data centers in Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand, which will mark the company’s first cloud region in each country.
• Once launched, those new regions will join Google’s 34 cloud regions currently in operation around the world—11 of which are located in Asia Pacific.

Asia Pacific has been proving itself to be one of the fastest-growing emerging cloud markets, especially since the pandemic. Data by International Data Corporation (IDC) even suggests that total spending on cloud services in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to reach US$282 billion by 2025. Considering the new cloud computing opportunities and service sales, Google Cloud decided to strengthen its foothold in the region with the unveiling of three brand-new cloud regions in Malaysia, Thailand as well as New Zealand.

The three new cloud regions mark the company’s first ones in each country, with an aim to provide local customers with the infrastructure to empower their cloud services. The announcement came on the heels of six other regions that the cloud giant plans on opening including Berlin, Dammam, Doha, Mexico, Tel Aviv, and Turin.  

“The New Zealand cloud region will give Kiwi businesses the choice to keep their data onshore, retain data sovereignty and drive their digital transformation efforts locally with speed, security and scalability at the core,” Google’s cloud arm said in a statement yesterday. When launched, the region will bring high-performance, low-latency services and products to local customers, and will have three zones to help protect against service disruptions. 

Even IDC’s Asia/Pacific research director for cloud services and software research Daphne Chung said, “The new cloud region will help to address organizations’ increasing needs in the area of digital sovereignty and enable more opportunities for digital transformation and innovation in New Zealand. With this announcement, Google Cloud is providing customers with more choices in accessing capabilities from local cloud regions while aiding their journeys to hybrid and multi-cloud environments.”

Google Cloud currently has a Dedicated Cloud Interconnect in Auckland to support New Zealand customers. The New Zealand cloud region will be Google Cloud’s third region in Australasia, joining Sydney and Melbourne. Overall, Google Cloud has 11 cloud regions already in operation in JAPAC. Worldwide, it has 34 regions and 103 zones currently in operation.

For context, Google’s cloud computing arm ranks third when it comes to market-share leader in cloud services, trailing Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. As of the second quarter of this year, AWS owns approximately 34% of the global cloud market share, followed by Microsoft at 21%, then Google at 10%, according to IT market research firm Synergy Research Group. All three players are also the largest spenders on building new data centers, with billions in investment each quarter.

For its second quarter for financial year 2022, Google Cloud brought in US$6.3 billion of revenue, a 35% year-on-year increase compared to last year’s second quarter’s US$4.6 billion revenue. Speaking in the company’s earnings webcast, CEO Sundar Pichai said he believes Google Cloud has a “substantial market opportunity here” because the market “still feels like early stages of this transformation.

However, Google Cloud continues to face losses, as it faces stiff competition from the likes of Microsoft, AWS, and Oracle. For the second quarter, Google Cloud reported an operating loss of US$858 million, likely driven by infrastructure investments.