All government agencies and departments across Australia can now procure AWS Cloud services seamlessly at scale to accelerate innovation and digital transformation
Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has signed a new Whole-of-Government agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia. The new agreement enables Australian Federal, State, and Territory agencies and departments, as well as public universities and government-controlled corporations (“agencies”), to access all AWS Cloud services through a simplified procurement model. This centralised agreement lets agencies save costs from the day they sign up, due to the economies of scale achieved from the aggregated procurement.
The Whole-of-Government agreement provides agencies with a consistent approach to access and use all the AWS services in any of AWS’s 66 Availability Zones (AZs) spanning 21 Regions around the world, without having to negotiate separate contract terms. This empowers agencies to easily use the latest AWS services and features in a self-service, low-administration way. Combined with the PROTECTED certification awarded by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) in January 2019, this agreement helps government agencies to migrate highly sensitive workloads and applications to the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region. Since all agencies will have the same terms, the smallest and largest agencies alike will be able to access the same benefits, and leverage AWS’s industry-leading security capabilities and highly fault-tolerant infrastructure.
Deloitte Access Economics recently released a research report entitled “Harnessing Cloud Opportunities in the Government Sector Report”, commissioned by AWS, which revealed Australia is one of the leading nations in government adoption of cloud. Ninety-four percent of the government sector leaders surveyed, agreed that procurement processes should be modernised, and that governments should invest in workforce upskilling to be better prepared for cloud migration. This Whole-of-Government agreement with AWS addresses some of the main barriers of adopting and expanding the use of cloud services, by modernising the way government purchases cloud services and facilitates training.
The traditional procurement model typically uses a fixed price list that often takes weeks, as well as multiple approvals and administrative steps, to add new technology services to the price list. However, this Whole-of-Government agreement in Australia with AWS removes this administrative overhead, smooths the procurement process for agencies, and provides instantaneous access to the breadth and depth of AWS services on a pay-as-you-use model under an agreed set of terms and conditions. This flexibility encourages experimentation with new ideas to accelerate innovation within government organisations, as well as the ability to deliver new citizen services at a reduced cost. The agreement also includes AWS Enterprise Support to provide close guidance and best practices, AWS Professional Services for agencies that need to obtain more guidance on complex projects, and AWS Training to enable agencies’ staff to develop the latest cloud skills.
“This agreement makes it easier for Australian government agencies to procure AWS services and speed time to value,” said Peter Moore, Asia Pacific Regional Managing Director, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services. “This new Whole-of-Government procurement agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia greatly simplifies and streamlines government technology procurement by providing government agencies with rapid access to the full portfolio of AWS services in any AWS Region at pre-agreed upon terms. This paves the way for greater innovation by enabling agencies to build and deploy digital services to serve Australians more effectively, transform legacy operations, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs. By eliminating barriers that have traditionally bogged down government technology procurement, the Whole-of-Government agreement enables agencies to invest more time and resources on their core missions, rather than on negotiating contracts.”
Many Public Sector organisations have already adopted AWS Cloud services in Australia – such as IP Australia, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Landgate, Emergency Services Victoria, Australian Museum, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), La Trobe University, Monash University, and RMIT Online.
The Whole-of-Government agreement will also make it easier for members of the AWS Partner Network (APN) to offer consulting and technology services to agencies. APN members can now focus on helping agencies to build and deliver their government-specific solutions, as well as supporting the migration of workloads to AWS. 2pi Software, an APN member, is a fast-growing tech-focused small-to-medium business based in regional New South Wales. “The streamlined procurement for government to build on AWS also makes it faster and easier for APN partners – the small and medium sized Australian businesses focused on offering technology solutions to agencies — to provide our software and consulting services to the Australian government. This initiative will continue to drive sustainable growth of ICT jobs in regional Australia,” said Liam O’Duibhir, Managing Director at 2pi Software. “2pi Software is now a supplier in the Australian government’s Digital Marketplace, and we are investing in both New South Wales and the Canberra region by hiring local talent. We are also investing in skill and capability development to help local, state, and Federal Government to leverage AWS cloud services in building citizen solutions.”
“Deloitte is delighted with this new Whole-of-Government procurement agreement represented by the government and AWS. This agreement will make it much easier for government agencies to procure and access the breadth and depth of AWS cloud services, including the PROTECTED certified cloud services by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) that are hosted in Australia,” said Dan Newman, Lead Partner for Cloud, Technology, Strategy, and Architecture at Deloitte. “The announcement is welcome news, as it offers a government and industry service providers like Deloitte with broader access to the highly secure, scalable, reliable cloud technology services to drive digital transformation and accelerate government change programs.”
