
In the Works – AWS Region in Canada - jeffbarr
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/in-the-works-aws-region-in-canada/
======
rsync
We (rsync.net) should have our Montreal location up and running any month now.

We chose Montreal because that's where _I_ want to hang out and tour in the
off hours between building cabinets and burning disks in.

When Montreal is live, people with .ca-only requirements can run their VMs on
EC2 and transfer disk images, S3 data and Glacier data between Amazon and
rsync.net using 's3cmd':

    
    
      ssh user@rsync.net s3cmd get s3://rsync/mscdex.exe
    

Our HN readers rate[1] OR our petabyte rate[1] OR our non-profit/student
rate[1] makes this very cost effective, relative to current S3 pricing.

[1] email us.

~~~
booi
HN readers rate? What now?

~~~
voltagex_
They'll offer you a discount if you let them know you read this on HN.

------
jedberg
Technically the French announcement should be first if they want to follow
language laws. :)

I'm glad to hear this, as it was rather silly that a whole bunch of companies
in Canada couldn't use AWS because of requirements around where their data
must be stored. Now they will be able to.

~~~
dorfsmay
Silly? You are ok with a judicial system from a different country ruling over
who can access your health or tax records?

~~~
matdrewin
Being on Amazon in Canada may not help you depending on the outcome of this:
[http://europe.newsweek.com/does-us-warrant-apply-data-
stored...](http://europe.newsweek.com/does-us-warrant-apply-data-stored-
foreign-server-332236) (as mentioned by @axelfontaine below)

And the requirements pertaining to Canadian data actually staying in Canada
are largely overblown: [http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2011/04/cloud-computing-
and-pri...](http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2011/04/cloud-computing-and-privacy-
faq.html)

------
axelfontaine
How is this affected by the case between Microsoft and the US Justice
department regarding U.S. warrants for data stored on foreign servers? (See:
[http://europe.newsweek.com/does-us-warrant-apply-data-
stored...](http://europe.newsweek.com/does-us-warrant-apply-data-stored-
foreign-server-332236))

~~~
staticint
I imagine it is being primarily driven by the recent vast decline in the
Canadian dollar. Just about all of the costs involved are going to be about
30% cheaper compared to a couple of years ago.

~~~
dgemm
I doubt long term infrastructure investments are affected much by short term
currency fluctuations.

Quebec has cheap hydro power and a cool climate which are probably more
important factors.

------
guiomie
"This region will be carbon-neutral and powered almost entirely by clean,
renewable hydro power." ... Like anyone living in that province.

Considering the low Canadian dollar and the low cost of electricity, will the
pricing be different for people hosting in this zone?

~~~
Coincoin
I also saw that as taking undeserved credit at first, but the fact is, this
region will be carbon-neutral and they are right to advertise it as such for
those who would be interested in hosting in a carbon-neutral environment.

------
werdnapk
Digital Ocean also has a new Canadian datacenter...

[https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/introducing-our-
ne...](https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/introducing-our-new-canadian-
datacenter-tor1/)

~~~
crandycodes
As is Microsoft: [http://reimagine.microsoft.ca/en-
ca/](http://reimagine.microsoft.ca/en-ca/)

------
azmenak
Does this mean AWS will now start charging sales tax in Canada? My costs
increased by 13% when Digital Ocean opened up in Toronto and had to charge me
HST.

~~~
cperciva
I'm sure your Canadian usage would be subject to GST (which may be why Amazon
opted for Montreal target than Toronto) but I think they arrange the
subsidiaries so that you don't pay taxes on your usage in other countries.

It doesn't matter for businesses of course, since GST/HST is a reclaimable
VAT.

~~~
sebbul
I think they chose Montréal for cheap electricity rather than sales tax
issues. My residential rates more than doubled when I moved to Toronto. Looks
like business rates follow a similar pattern:
[http://www.hydroquebec.com/business/rates-and-
billing/rates/...](http://www.hydroquebec.com/business/rates-and-
billing/rates/comparison-of-electricity-prices/)

~~~
cperciva
Yes, the Ontario government has horribly mismanaged the power utility, with
extremely high rates resulting. I figured that Amazon probably wouldn't be
paying retail rates, but if they couldn't negotiate anything better that would
definitely explain why they avoided Ontario.

------
davefp
I wonder if/how Quebec's laws on language will apply to content hosted there.

My guess is that unless your business is actually in Quebec then you should be
OK, but it's an interesting topic.

~~~
raverbashing
Your data is your data, the issue is hosting a website to Quebec customers,
which then might have a complaint from the OQLF

------
globalgoat
I'm intrigued to see when someone launches in Africa.

~~~
sandstrom
Yes, at least an edge location (for CloudFront CDN etc) in Africa would be
useful.

~~~
discodave
Given that the team who originally built EC2 are based in Cape Town, it seems
crazy that there is zero AWS presence in Africa.

~~~
globalgoat
the closest to anything really mainstream I'm aware of currently is CloudFare
in Kenya. When I saw this last year it gave me some hope that the bigger
players may start to look at Africa seriously in the near future.
[https://blog.cloudflare.com/mombasa-kenya-
cloudflares-43rd-d...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/mombasa-kenya-
cloudflares-43rd-data-center/)

------
newobj
Wonder how the CAD/USD exchange rate will affect pricing in the region.

~~~
atomic77
Moreover I am curious about whether they will charge in USD or CAD.

If USD, then a Canadian firm still has to deal with currency exposure as with
the US AZs

If CAD, it might be interesting if a lot of US load heads up to Canada chasing
lower prices.

~~~
falsestprophet
That's not how exchange rates work.

~~~
atomic77
Please do enlighten me.

------
Globz
This is good news for Quebec, hopefully this won't take too long!

------
z0r
us-north-1?

~~~
eistrati
+1 :)

But to be politically correct, it should be ca-east-1 ;)

~~~
cperciva
Just hope Quebec doesn't have another referendum - qc-central-1 anyone?

~~~
emptybits
As a western Canadian, it's fun (?) to joke about Quebec separation.
(Indifference/irrelevance, right or wrong, is a common western view on it, I
think.)

I had to look this up but it seems the last big poll of Quebecois on this was
in 2011: 41% voted in favour of sovereignty.
[http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/323376/sondage-
lege...](http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/323376/sondage-leger-
marketing-le-devoir-l-appui-a-la-souverainete-ne-flechit-pas)

That's actually way higher than I thought. But if support for the Bloc
Quebecois is any indication, the sovereignty movement was dealt a big blow in
our fall 2015 election. They lost a lot of federal seats and smaller polls
suggest popular support for sovereignty might be around 31% now.
[https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/quebec-
indep...](https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/quebec-independence-
movement-a-big-election-loser-203722455.html)

Still, it's fun/interesting to talk about. As a westerner. ;-)

------
netcraft
This is the first Ive heard about an ohio data center, that will be good news
for us in the midwest - wish it was a bit further west than that but still
better than East.

~~~
jonathanoliver
I think Ohio will be called us-east-2. It's not that far from their Virginia
data center. Midwest for me would be more like Chicago or Kansas.

~~~
netcraft
makes sense. any latency decrease though will be welcome.

------
ArnoldP
Are they actually going to put it in mtl? It'd be more likely that they build
a centre in beauharnois and benefit from cheap hydro like OVH

~~~
dgemm
If it's anything like the other regions they will be building DCs scattered
around the Montreal metro, not necessarily on the island.

------
api
Lots of cheap hydro electricity up there.

------
jjoe
It's great AWS is expanding. Here's to hoping they fix the dire reliability
issues they've been facing every now and then. I looked really hard at using
AWS for ELB and other services but GCP won me over because they solved the ELB
and scalability pre-warm up issue(s).

~~~
BillinghamJ
> dire reliability issues

Source?

------
caissy
Since the provincial government is already giving huge tax credits to the
video game industries, I'm wondering the government will be giving Amazon any
financial incentives to implement that in Montréal.

------
corry
"...in the coming year". They've been claiming that the Canada datacenter is
coming for awhile now... disappointed there are no details on launch date.

Anyone have insight into the timing?

~~~
zwily
They haven't claimed it publicly at all, until now.

~~~
corry
You're right, I meant privately. It's been relatively widely known in Canadian
tech circles that this is coming.

------
matdrewin
Sweet! Been waiting a long time for this one :)

------
josaka
This will have interesting effects for US patents that are practiced on AWS
machines in Canada to serve client devices in the US. All the steps of a
method claim in a patent must be performed in the US to infringe, so choosing
to use machines in Canada will create defenses for many extant US patent
claims.

This only works for method claims, though. Device claims in patents are a
different beast.

And of course, this isn't new, but a AWS region in Canada will make the issue
more prevalent.

~~~
falsedan
> a AWS region in Canada will make the issue more prevalent

How on earth will it? The EU region launched 9 years ago & AP 6 years ago.
Would the prevalence be in Canadian businesses who weren't aware of these
other regions and the legions of other hosting providers available outside of
the USA?

~~~
josaka
Low latency, at least by geographic distance, alternative.

~~~
falsedan
That's nonsense.

------
SoulMan
Lohri gift ;)

