Google plans to open a new cloud region in Mexico to meet what it says is a growing global demand for cloud services. The move comes a month after the cloud giant committed to a five-year, $1.2 billion investment in expanding Latin America's digital infrastructure, fostering digital skills, building an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and creating inclusive and sustainable communities, President of Google Cloud Latin America Eduardo Lopez explained.

The new cloud region will mark Google's third expansion into Latin America and is targeted at supporting "the digital transformations of enterprises, cloud-native companies, and public-sector organizations," Lopez said, citing the provider's current cloud regions in Santiago, Chile, and São Paulo, Brazil.

Google Cloud says this expansion will allow local customers to experience low latency and "the highest" data compliance and residency standards. The provider also plans to "work with our local and regional customers to ensure the cloud region fits their unique and evolving needs," Lopez explained.

"This is undeniably a fundamental milestone that will allow us to accelerate our digital transformation and boost initiatives that we are exploring with Google Cloud within the regulatory framework," Francisco Martha, general director of Google Cloud customer Grupo Financiero Banorte, said. "For Mexico, it is a turning point in the digitization process that we already see taking place in many of our clients, partners and suppliers."

Along with this new region, Lopez touted the cloud giant's efforts to enable digital transformations for Mexican organizations. "In the last year, we’ve opened a support center to boost local companies as well as global companies with operations in Mexico. We also opened a delivery center and grew our team in Monterrey to support the local ecosystem," Lopez said.

He also cited Google's efforts to advance digital skills and tech industry training opportunities in Mexico like Capacita+ and Grow with Google for Women in STEM, which CEO Sundar Pichai said has resulted in the digital skills training of 800 million people in Latin America since 2017.

Pichai added that applying digital technologies to their fullest potential is expected to result in a yearly economic impact of nearly $1.37 trillion by 2030 across six of Latin America's largest economies. "Communities have been hit hard by the pandemic, and closing digital access gaps will be vital to an inclusive recovery," Pichai noted.

"It’s exciting to see Latin America emerge as a hub of innovation, and we look forward to creating even more economic opportunities for those who call it home," Pichai concluded.