Major cloud service providers have experienced significant growth this year, as AWS, Azure, and Google have actively broadened their data center infrastructure globally. Concluding the year, Google Cloud revealed a new series of cloud regions scheduled to become operational in the months and years ahead. These forthcoming regions, each incorporating three availability zones, will be located in Chile, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. This expands upon the regions launched this year in Indonesia, South Korea, and the United States (Las Vegas and Salt Lake City), as well as previously announced regions in France, Italy, Qatar, and Spain.

Currently, Google maintains 24 regions encompassing 73 availability zones, excluding those announced but not yet active. While Microsoft Azure currently leads in the overall quantity of regions—although some still lack availability zones—Google is now approaching parity with AWS, which presently provides 24 regions with a combined total of 77 availability zones. In fact, with 12 regions in development, Google Cloud could potentially surpass AWS, which is presently developing six additional regions.

The competitive landscape may soon evolve, moving beyond these extensive data centers toward a greater emphasis on edge zones situated near metropolitan areas. These edge zones will be smaller in scale than the comprehensive data centers currently utilized by major cloud providers, but will enable businesses to host their services in closer proximity to their user base.

This expansion demonstrates the substantial investment Google has made in its cloud strategy in recent years. For a considerable period, Google Cloud Platform trailed its rivals. Just three years ago, Google Cloud supported only 13 regions. This is in addition to the company’s significant investments in undersea cables and edge infrastructure.