Amazon Web Services Inc. has made a significant deal to construct data centers in Australia that will cater to the country’s defense and intelligence agencies. The project, known as TS Cloud, was announced in a press conference in Canberra and is estimated to cost A$2 billion over the next decade, creating up to 2,000 local jobs. It will consist of three cloud facilities and will be utilized to store top-secret data from Australian intelligence and defense agencies.
The main objective of TS Cloud is to enhance the exchange of information between Australia’s defense and intelligence agencies, as well as to improve collaboration with the United States. Additionally, the project aims to bolster the resilience of the Australian government’s technology infrastructure. AWS plans to leverage its investments in local renewable energy projects to power the data center cluster, building on its existing portfolio of renewable energy projects in the country.
Iain Rouse, managing director of AWS’s public sector business in Australia and New Zealand, highlighted that TS Cloud will offer a wide range of AWS services to defense and intelligence agencies, enabling them to focus on their missions without the burden of managing IT hardware. This initiative follows the establishment of AWS’s first Australian data center in 2012, which has since grown to encompass three data center campuses in the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region.
In 2021, AWS expanded its cloud infrastructure in Australia with the opening of a new cloud region in Melbourne, featuring three data centers and a Local Zone for latency-sensitive workloads. The announcement of TS Cloud in Australia comes on the heels of a substantial investment by AWS in New Zealand, where they are building a similar cloud region with three data center campuses at a cost of NZ$7.5 billion.
The project underscores AWS’s commitment to providing secure and efficient cloud services to government agencies in the Asia Pacific region. The company’s track record in renewable energy investments and data center operations positions it well to meet the needs of Australian defense and intelligence agencies. With TS Cloud, AWS aims to support the digital transformation and modernization efforts of the Australian government, while also fostering greater collaboration and interoperability with international partners, particularly the United States.
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https://siliconangle.com/2024/07/04/aws-build-1-3b-top-secret-cloud-australias-government/