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Amazon Web Services eyes key role in Korea's 'data transformation'

Published: 18 Apr. 2025, 17:45

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Amazon Web Services Korea Director Yoon Jeong-won speaks at a press event held in southern Seoul on April 18. [AMAZON WEB SERVICES]

Korea’s public sector is set to undergo a significant data transformation for AI adoption, with third-party cloud providers playing a key role in the process, according to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Korea Director Yoon Jeong-won on Friday.

“Many of the developed countries have already gone through a process called ‘data transformation,’ which involves collecting large volumes of data, refining it, modeling it and teaching how to classify and use it effectively,” Yoon said at a press event to explain AWS Korea’s cloud services at its office in southern Seoul.

“Korea is expected to follow this global trend, although the foundational process has been relatively slow. However, to integrate AI, data transformation is essential.”

Last month, AWS was certified at the lowest level of Korea’s Cloud Security Assurance Program (CSAP), a government-backed certification mandatory for cloud service providers (CSP) to supply their services to public institutions in the country.

Previously, foreign CSPs were unable to enter Korea’s public sector because they were required to have physical hardware to separate their networks — a challenge since their servers were located abroad. However, since January 2023, the government has implemented a three-tier certification system — high, medium and low — based on security levels. This change has opened the door for foreign companies to enter the market, as the lowest security level now allows for logical network separation, enabling network division through software rather than physical infrastructure.

AWS is the last in line out of three major global CSPs including Google and Microsoft to obtain the low-level certification, which allows them to operate in areas that handle publicly available information, such as running public websites or providing tourist information.

The bar for the next level certification for foreign companies might be lowered following the release of the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers report published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative on March 31. The report urges Korea to reconsider stringent requirements for CSP certification to ensure fair market access for foreign firms.

The major divider between medium- and low-level criteria is whether physical network separation is possible, according to Yoon.

“If you look at global trends and how companies and major governments operate, you’ll see those services and applications requiring physical network separation are becoming increasingly rare,” he remarked. “Even the U.S. Department of Defense now recognizes the safety of logical separation and permits it to a considerable extent. In fact, many global operations simply can't function primarily on physical network separation.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]