Computerworld

AWS scores whole of NZ Government cloud services supply deal

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has scored a whole-of-government agreement, through the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), to help New Zealand Government agencies accelerate the adoption of public cloud services.

In a statement DIA said: “This cloud framework agreement leverages the scale of New Zealand government agencies as a single customer and supports the New Zealand Government’s Cloud First policy."

The Cloud First policy requires agencies to adopt cloud services in preference to traditional IT systems because, it says, they are more cost effective, agile, are generally more secure and provide greater choice.

Use of the new AWS agreement is not mandated for agencies, but will save those who choose to use it time and resources through simplified contractual processes, DIA said.

The department has negotiated commercial agreements with other local and global cloud services providers on behalf of agencies and promises that buying cloud services will soon be easier through a Public Cloud ICT Marketplace planned for the second half of 2017. 

According to DIA the agreement is one of the first all-of-government supplier agreements AWS has entered into globally for all AWS services.

Government CTO, Tim Occleshaw, said: “This agreement is further recognition of New Zealand’s leadership in digital government. It is a valuable addition to our portfolio of commercial arrangements with local and international suppliers. [It] supports agencies as they use public cloud services to enhance customer experience, streamline operations, and create new delivery models.

“More broadly, it supports the creation of a digital ecosystem as we continue to reinvent the way citizens interact with government.”

Cloud services are currently available to agencies through the DIA's infrastructure as a service (IaaS) procurement panel from Datacom, Revera and IBM. 

Datacom and Revera also provide public cloud compute and storage services through their reseller agreements with AWS and Microsoft Azure. According to the DIA's IaaS panel webpage the department is working with IBM to also provide public cloud services.