TL;DR: Australia recently launched a new, costly initiative to move the country’s intelligence operations to the cloud. The project, announced last year, is now in full swing as the Canberra government plans to invest billions over the next few years.
The Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has officially announced a new partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a “top secret” cloud platform for intelligence-related operations. This “strategic partnership” with the US company will span several years, costing a significant amount of Australian dollars, and will seemingly elevate Australia’s capabilities to the level of world-class spying technology employed by the most advanced countries in the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance.
Australia’s director-general of national intelligence, Andrew Shearer, announced the new cloud initiative in 2023, highlighting its importance from an interoperability standpoint. The top-secret platform will be a “sovereign” cloud service hosting extremely sensitive data and operations. The government states that the project will cost at least AU$2 billion ($1.35 billion) over 10 years.
Canberra expects to create up to 2,000 local jobs through its AWS partnership, bringing much-improved reliability, security, and resilience to Australia’s agencies. The latest technological advancements are part of the deal as well, with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms being cited as new opportunities to harness for cybersecurity.
AWS will seemingly partition Australia’s platform into three different data centers, which will be managed by a local Amazon subsidiary established solely for this purpose. Canberra says the network will actively support the Australian Defence Force’s military operations, but it will also be instrumental in providing “greater interoperability” and better collaboration with the United States. Last year, Shearer discussed near-instantaneous sharing of sensitive data between the two governments.
The AWS partnership is part of a major initiative promoted by the Albanese government known as the “2024 National Defence Strategy.” Canberra plans to invest AU$15-20 billion over a decade to enhance its cyber capabilities and AU$8.5-11 billion over the same period to bolster the “enterprise data and ICT” of Australia’s Defence.
The Australian government also highlighted how the AWS cloud platform will boost the country’s economy, as Amazon will have to work with local ventures to design and build the infrastructure. The company plans to invest AU$13.2 billion in Australia until 2027, having already spent AU$9.1 billion since AWS launched in the country in 2011.
