Amazon signs up Brookfield as its newest cloud customer and inks renewable energy deal

Amazon Web Services Inc. chalked up another big customer win at AWS re:Invent today, as Brookfield Asset Management Inc. said it has chosen AWS as its preferred cloud provider.

Brookfield, one of the world’s largest alternative investment management companies and a leading investor in renewable energy, said the partnership with AWS will enable it to accelerate its digital transformation and become more data-driven. To that end, Brookfield said, it has migrated most of its legacy systems to AWS, where it can take advantage of Amazon’s considerable expertise in data analytics and storage, software containers, the “internet of things” and machine learning, as well as its extensive partner network.

The plan is for Brookfield to tap those services to modernize its technology infrastructure, optimize its business operations and boost innovation.

The close cooperation between the two companies has been underway for some time and has already borne fruit. For instance, Brookfield said, it sought the expertise provided by AWS Professional Services, the AWS Managed Services Provider BDO Lixar, and the AWS Partner Databricks Inc. to consolidate more than 40 petabytes of data within a new data lake hosted on Amazon’s infrastructure.

With that, Brookfield said, it has been able to better optimize facility operations and increase production output while improving equipment performance. By applying AWS’ machine learning and analytics capabilities to the data, it can also now automate many more aspects of its business operations.

In addition, Brookfield said the move to Amazon’s cloud has helped it to improve workplace safety significantly across its global facilities. Brookfield did this by working with AWS and AWS Partner Blackline Safety Inc. to create a real-time employee safety monitoring platform at three hydroelectric dam sites in the U.S. Employees at those sites have been equipped with wearable safety devices that tap into the Amazon Kineses real-time data analytics platform, allowing supervisors to keep closer tabs on them and trigger an alert if anyone needs assistance.

Cementing the new friendship between the two companies, Brookfield subsidiary Brookfield Renewable has agreed to provide Amazon with 601.6 megawatts of clean wind and solar energy capacity. That will be used to help power Amazon’s business operations across Europe, North America and India, helping it get closer to its sustainability goals. Amazon said the projects are expected to generate 1,370 gigawatt-hours of energy — enough juice to power 120,000 U.S. homes for an entire year.

“Our partnership with Amazon is a tremendously exciting example of companies working together to reach net zero,” said Ruth Kent, chief operating officer at Brookfield Renewable. “AWS is helping us modernize our operational systems, giving us the scalability, reliability, and innovation we need to deliver clean energy around the world.”

Amazon said the renewable energy deal keeps it on track to fulfill its goal of powering its entire business operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original commitment to achieve that by 2030.

Brookfield’s move to AWS is the latest in a string of customer wins for Amazon. Earlier this week, AWS announced that the geospatial intelligence firm Descartes Labs Inc. and electric vehicle charger supplier Wallbox Chargers S.L. are both going all-in on its cloud infrastructure.

Photo: Suwit_Luangpipatsorn/Pixabay