Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made its machine learning service available to European developers for the first time, several months after it was formally announced.
The company claims the service can be used to generate billions of predictions each day, which developers can use to personalise the customer experience offered to online shoppers when visiting their favourite sites, for example, or to help retailers pinpoint fraudulent transactions.
AWS claims it could be used to help firms curtail customer churn by flagging users whose online activities suggest they might be about to abandon a transaction, by luring them back in with new money saving offers.
“Using Amazon Machine Learning in the Dublin region that is nearest to our European customer’s predictive applications will help with lower real-time prediction latencies,” the company said in a statement.
“The availability of Amazon Machine Learning in this region helps to address limitations organisations may have related to the location of their data, as all analytics and predictions will be done on data that resides in Europe and will not leave the region.”
AWS steps up startup support
The announcement comes hot on the heels of last week’s news from AWS about its plans to open a temporary startup hub in Moorgate, London where developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs can go for in-person help with building a business based on AWS cloud technologies.
The facility will provide them with free access to training courses, boot camps, and self-paced labs – as well as more informal opportunities to hone their craft – between 10 September and 29 October 2015.
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AWS launched similar initiatives in San Francisco, New York and is planning to open another Europe-based site in Berlin later in 2015.
Werner Vogels, CTO and vice-president of Amazon.com, said London seemed like the obvious location to open up its next facility.
“The UK is a hotbed of innovation and London is one of the main places where we see talented, ambitious entrepreneurs coming together to test ideas and start new businesses leveraging cloud computing,” he said.
“With the AWS Pop-up Loft in London we will be bringing together a host of AWS resources, and some of the brightest and most creative minds in the industry to help startups across the UK.
"We look forward to working alongside the next generation of UK businesses and helping them to reach their full potential.”
