In previous blog posts (H1 2023 and Q3 2023), we provided updates on the launched services and features in the AWS Europe (Zurich) region. We now offer another update on the latest developments. In this post, we will discuss newly launched services and significant features, instance types in the region, SaaS offerings available on AWS Marketplace, and focus on Compute Optimizer to help you right-size your compute environment in AWS.

Compliance Certifications and Attestations

The AWS Europe (Zurich) region has a number of compliance certifications and attestations, including AWS ISO, SOC, PCI DSS, HDS, and CSA. Additionally, the region has been attested to comply with the latest C5 criteria. C5 is the cloud computing criteria catalog of the German Federal Office for Information Security. The C5 report also provides information about the data center locations, allowing customers to conduct their own risk assessments. You can learn more about the IT standards we comply with on the AWS Compliance Program Landing page.

AWS Graviton: Powering Energy-Efficient Cloud Workloads

AWS offers custom-built Graviton processors to deliver the best price-performance for cloud workloads. The newest generation of the Arm-based Graviton CPUs uses up to 60% less energy to deliver the same performance as comparable EC2 instances. The AWS Europe (Zurich) region offers 52 different types of Graviton based EC2 instances and an increasing number of AWS services, such as AWS Lambda, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Amazon Aurora, and Amazon OpenSearch, that provide a Graviton option. Managed services backed by Graviton processors offer the easiest way to adopt Graviton technology. Check the AWS Graviton Technical Guide for more details on how to adopt Graviton processors.

Marketplace and Independent Software Vendors

Customers utilize AWS Marketplace to swiftly deploy pre-configured software from third-party vendors. The entire procurement and billing process is streamlined through a single source, with charges seamlessly integrated into the AWS bill. Currently, customers in the AWS Europe (Zurich) region have access to a diverse selection of over 6’500 listings.

Many third-party software vendors are opting to build their Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions on the AWS platform. Noteworthy new offerings available in Switzerland include:

• Atlassian (Jira and Confluence products)
• Genesys Cloud CX
• Nexthink
• Palo Alto Networks
• Pegasystems (Pega Cloud)
• Salesforce Hyperforce

Additional Services, Features, and Instance Types

At present, the AWS Europe (Zurich) region offers a selection of 141 services (up from 58 services when the region launched in November 2022) and provides a choice of 187 instance types for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Additionally, there are 250 Amazon RDS engine types and versions available, ranging from well-known commercial products, our own Amazon Aurora database engine, to open-source options like MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL. Notably, we have introduced the following services and significant features since the last update in September 2023.

Compute Optimizer

AWS Compute Optimizer is available to optimize compute resources, including virtual machines (instances), containers, and AWS Lambda functions, in the Europe (Zurich) Region. It uses machine learning techniques to analyze the history of resource consumption on your account and provide well-articulated, actionable recommendations tailored to your resource usage. For details on how to right-size your compute resources, check the AWS blog page on Compute Optimizer.

Going forward

Based on customer demand, more services are in the pipeline and will be added over time. Customers can share their interest for local region delivery, request service roadmap information, or gain insight on service interdependency (under NDA) by contacting your AWS sales representative.