Analysis: Amazon Web Services turned heads when, in 2021, it pledged to invest $7.5 billion to construct a ‘hyperscale cloud region’ for New Zealand.
Powered by a system of on-shore data centres, our very own cloud region would allow for the repatriation of data from overseas facilities and companies.
More than that, according to its proponents, it would unleash a tech-driven revolution across the economy and the public sector through access to advanced computing services. Our hyperscale future was set to begin from early 2024.
Recently, though, head-turning has become head-scratching, with Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne reporting that Amazon’s plans have been “quietly put on hold”.
To date, only one consent application to build a data centre has been filed with Auckland Council. While the response from an Amazon representative was resolute, stating “we are launching an AWS region”, the consent process is in limbo until stormwater issues can be resolved.
Even for the optimists, it appears New Zealand’s hyperscale cloud region is a while off.
But there is a silver lining. The stalling of Amazon’s plan provides valuable time to think about how we can maximise the benefits of cloud computing for government and society, while guarding against apparent risks, particularly when it comes to the public sector and public data.
A first and obvious area for improvement is transparency around cloud provider agreements.
Much of the detail about the Amazon initiative remains tied up in confidentiality agreements, including the names of the other data providers with whom Amazon will partner to co-locate its cloud services.
While there are only a few such providers with the infrastructure and finances capable of handling Amazon’s service loads, the secrecy is troubling.
Amazon has claimed its investment will enhance national data sovereignty, but it is difficult to know how.
Central government has been keen to deepen relations with cloud providers, but it is unclear what deals have been struck or whether the delays to the Amazon initiative represent new struggles over the terms.
If cloud infrastructure is a matter of national significance – touching on issues of sovereignty, no less – the public ought to expect a high degree of transparency.
We might start by engineering more transparency into agreements between government and cloud providers, actively inviting public input and discussion.
Secondly, while cloud services have unarguable potential to improve public services, close monitoring is needed on the kinds of products and services that cloud providers offer government.
The New Zealand government has invested, for example, in cloud-first procurement strategies with specialised agreements between Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The agreements are designed to make cloud services a centre-piece of public service delivery and are part of efforts to create an ‘all-of-government Cloud centre of excellence’.
So far, these agreements have tended to focus on relatively mundane – but not unimportant – work to create efficiencies in the public service. But more ambitious visions and more powerful products, like AI and big-data analytics, are on the horizon.
For the former minister of digital economy David Clark, the “cloud is a foundation for our aspirations as a digital nation.”
And across social, environmental and economic policy domains, central government’s ‘lighthouse innovation’ projects are seeking to “couple hyperscale cloud with advanced technologies to deliver solutions that have national impact.”
Some might think these statements and plans contain a fair amount of hot air, but if taken at their word, they are expansive. Their ambition and potential implications – good, bad and indifferent – suggest the need to think and act carefully.
Now that it appears we have some time on our hands before substantial progress is made on Amazon’s hyperscale cloud region, New Zealand has an opportunity to ask constructive questions of what a healthy relationship might look like between cloud providers, government and civil society.
Associate Professor Tom Baker and Professor Nick Lewis, Faculty of Science, contributed to this article.
But won’t this ‘cloud’ require a huge amount of electricity to power it? Using up all our sustainable hydro & wind energy will leave NZ burning more coal. Ugh!
Quite the opposite really, these cloud providers have been signing Power Purchase Agreements with the gentailers which are helping them finance new renewable generation construction.
e.g: Amazon buying up to half of the output of Mercury’s Turitea Wind Farm and Microsoft purchasing all of the output of Contact’s Te Huka Unit 3 project.