Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) cloud arm operates a far larger network of data-centre sites than is generally recognised, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and SourceMaterial.
The papers indicate Amazon Web Services uses more than 900 facilities across over 50 countries, far beyond its well-known hubs in Virginia and Oregon.
Alongside the large company-owned or long-leased campuses, AWS relies heavily on rented “colocation” centres, where it occupies anything from a handful of server racks to most of a building.
These third-party sites accounted for about a fifth of its computing capacity last year and now number more than 440, with a further 220 smaller “edge” locations supporting network access in major cities.
The documents suggest AWS has become one of the world’s biggest tenants of colocation space.
AWS says the mix of owned and rented sites helps it address rising demand while expanding quickly into new markets.