Ninefold fires back at AWS with US launch

Minnow versus whale

With Amazon’s worst-kept-secret finally becoming a live service in Australia, upstart provider Ninefold has announced the launch of its first presence in America.

The Macquarie Telecom subsidiary has created a US “availability zone” in an unnamed California facility, saying that the move is in response to customer demand to improve delivery for customers on the other side of the Pacific.

Customers will be able to choose whether to host their data in Ninefold’s Australian facilities or in America, where that provides latency benefits for users.

Taking the now-obligatory dig at the legal debate surrounding America’s PATRIOT Act, chairman and co-founder Peter James said “If our customers require absolute certainty regarding the laws governing their data, there is only one way to achieve this: in an Australian based data facility, owned and operated by an Australian company. For customers who are less concerned about this issue and for whom latency is a key issue, then our new Californian facility is a great option.”

All availability zones will be managed through a single dashboard. America will be offered in the dashboard as an additional location option when customers are launching a new instance.

The company says the US availability zone will be progressively rolled out during December, coming into full operation for all customers early in 2013. It has declined to state how much kit is being installed, or which facility in Silicon Valley it is using. ®