Computerworld

Zoho launches A/NZ cloud region

Expands partnership with Equinix to offer a local region to Australian and New Zealand customers
Zoho office in Chennai

Zoho office in Chennai

Six months after flagging plans for a local data centre, cloud software vendor Zoho has launched its A/NZ cloud.

The service, based on Equinix data centres, will be offered out of Sydney and Melbourne with the intent to service Australia and New Zealand customers.

According to Zoho, the expansion is a consequence of the company’s competitive strategy to locate and store customer data locally. It also explained that the local offer suits the needs of both large enterprises and public sector customers in Australia and New Zealand, Zoho's fourth largest regional market.

In February, the Salesforce competitor said it was investing US$15 million in Australia building its cloud for local customers.

At the time, Jeremy Deutsch, managing director of Equinix Australia, said the company was excited to expand their existing partnership in Singapore and EMEA to Australia.

Back in March, local MD of Zoho Timothy Kasbe said that having local data centres would open up more public sector opportunities, after combating data sovereignty concerns.

The Australian region is the vendor's seventh region adding to existing ones in Quincy and Dallas in the US; Dublin, Ireland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Mumbai, India; Shanghai, China and Hong Kong.

Zoho expects the local regions will offer customers improved latency and easy access to the vendor's cloud products.

The vendor said it will address regional preferences for data sovereignty and offer compliance with GDPR.

"The new data centres further expand Zoho’s global ecosystem and are a commitment to meet the specific demands of our customers," Vijay Sundaram, chief strategy officer at Zoho, said.

"By building all the supporting infrastructure right here in Australia with Equinix, we can deliver a high-performance and scalable cloud infrastructure that is served locally and is in tune with the needs of the local market."

Sundaram said that the vendor's decision to build its own cloud infrastructure while remaining independent of large public cloud providers backs Zoho's "strong competitive position".

"It allows us to maintain control and enjoy significantly better operational efficiencies that we can pass on to our customers, through better prices."

Established in 1996, Zoho has three technology businesses: Zoho, which includes its CRM and productivity tools; Manage Engine, which is a system network and cloud administration technology; and webNMS, used by the telecommunications industry and IoT applications.

The company opened its first Australian office in Byron Bay in February to provide local support for more than 20 partners and 90,000 local users.