Amazon to create cloud storage for the Australian army

Amazon will create a cloud storage facility for Australia for more than a billion dollars, which will host classified defence and national security data.

Here's What We Know

The Australian Department of Defence has signed a $1.3 billion contract with Amazon.

"In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Australia will create a top-secret cloud computing infrastructure. It will store data from across the country," explained Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles.

He added that the main users of this database will be the Ministry of Defence and the country's intelligence service. Marles also said that modern conflicts require significant computing power.

"So these computing infrastructure capabilities will ensure that Australia keeps pace with the world's leading armies," the Defence Minister said.

In addition, this cloud storage will allow Australia to work closely with its allies, especially the United States. According to the government, the contract will create about 2,000 new jobs in Australia. At the same time, the head of the Office of Electronic Intelligence, Rachel Noble, assured that everyone involved in the creation and use of the cloud infrastructure will undergo a security check.

Access to classified information will be controlled at the "individual level", meaning that the system will track whether the information studied by an employee is related to his or her field of activity. In addition, the use of Amazon Web Services will allow Australian intelligence agencies to expand the use of artificial intelligence technologies in information analysis.

It is worth noting that Amazon Web Services is a division of the American technology corporation Amazon. It specialises specifically in cloud services, computing operations that are carried out on servers and in information centres.

Source: Australian Department of Defence