Source: securitybrief.com.au (original report, July 2019)
Overview
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has signed a Whole-of-Government procurement agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia, opening the full AWS cloud services portfolio to Federal, State, and Territory government agencies under a single, pre-negotiated framework. The deal also extends to public universities and government-controlled organisations.
What the Agreement Covers
The Whole-of-Government agreement is designed to remove the administrative friction historically associated with government technology procurement. Key elements include:
- Simplified procurement: Agencies can access any AWS service in any AWS Region at pre-agreed terms, eliminating the need to negotiate individual contracts for each engagement.
- Self-service access: A low-administration, self-service model replaces the traditional fixed price list that could take weeks to update, enabling faster experimentation and iteration.
- Enterprise Support: AWS Enterprise Support is included to provide guidance and best practices to agencies at all levels.
- Professional Services: AWS Professional Services is available for agencies undertaking complex cloud migration or modernisation projects.
- Training: AWS Training is bundled into the agreement to help agency staff build and maintain current cloud skills.
- Global reach: Agencies gain consistent access to AWS services across all of AWS’s Availability Zones and Regions worldwide without separate contract negotiations per Region.
AWS Partner Network (APN) Involvement
The agreement streamlines engagement with APN members as well. Consulting and technology partners within the AWS Partner Network can more readily offer their services to government agencies, helping to build government-specific solutions and supporting workload migrations to AWS. This is expected to accelerate the broader Australian public sector ecosystem of cloud-native delivery.
Security and Compliance: PROTECTED Certification
A significant enabler for the agreement is the PROTECTED certification granted to the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) in January 2019. This certification allows government agencies to migrate highly sensitive workloads and applications to AWS infrastructure in Australia, meeting the security requirements mandated for protected government data.
Because all participating agencies operate under the same agreement terms, even smaller agencies benefit from the same security capabilities and fault-tolerant infrastructure that were previously more accessible to larger departments with greater negotiating resources.
Building on Existing Public Sector Relationships
The Whole-of-Government deal builds on existing AWS agreements already in place with several Australian public sector organisations, including:
- Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- La Trobe University
The new framework creates a consistent baseline that these and other organisations can leverage without renegotiating terms from scratch.
Industry Reaction
Peter Moore, Managing Director of AWS Worldwide Public Sector Asia Pacific, commented on the agreement:
“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.”
— Peter Moore, Managing Director, AWS Worldwide Public Sector Asia Pacific
Key Takeaways for Public Sector Cloud Adoption
- Whole-of-Government agreements can significantly reduce procurement lead times and administrative overhead across public sector entities.
- Bundling enterprise support, professional services, and training into a single framework lowers the barrier for smaller agencies to adopt cloud at scale.
- Security certifications (such as ACSC PROTECTED) are a prerequisite for handling sensitive government workloads and should be confirmed before migration planning begins.
- Enabling APN partner access within the same framework multiplies delivery capacity without requiring additional procurement cycles.