Amazon will build high-security data center for Australia

(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. will partner with the Australian government on a cloud data system to handle top-secret information, in a move Canberra says will improve the country’s cyber capabilities and deepen security cooperation with the USA.

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Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced the partnership with Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, at a press conference in Canberra on Thursday morning, saying the government would invest at least A$2 billion ( US$1.3 billion) over the next decade under the new system. . The location of the data centers and the nature of the information they will hold have not been disclosed.

“This cutting-edge technology will increase Defense resilience,” Marles, who is also Defense Minister, said in a statement. It will also improve the Australian Defense Force’s combat capability, strengthen interoperability with key international partners and provide up to 2,000 Australian jobs, he said.

Under the terms of the deal, Amazon will build three facilities around Australia “purpose-built” to store top-secret information, much of it sourced from the country’s defense and intelligence agencies.

AWS announced in 2021 that it had signed a NZ$7.5 billion ($5.3 billion) deal to build similar centers in New Zealand, although there were reports in the same year that UK intelligence services had subscribed to cloud services to host your top secret data. .

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