As Amazon Web Services (AWS) launches a new cloud data region in Australia, tech experts are saying that it is just the first of many international companies that are planning to bring its cloud services into the country. 

With more and more Australians becoming increasingly reliant on the cloud, more international tech companies are building their own data centres on Australian shores. 

While Microsoft and Google have sites in several Australian cities, Amazon is the latest of these companies to take advantage of Australia’s need for the cloud.  

The company launched another cloud region in Melbourne a decade after it launched its first in Sydney. 

Check out: Australia’s first AWS local zone launched in Perth 

Amazon Web Services Australia and New Zealand managing director Rianne Van Veldhuizen said that adding more data regions allows customers to store data and use advanced technologies like artificial intelligence more easily. 

“We are here to help our customers lower costs, become more agile and basically innovate faster,” she said. 

“Being in Victoria, you’re closer to your customers. So that will offer lower latency, higher network quality and advanced solutions.” 

AWS Director Veldhuizen said there would be more Amazon data regions launching in Australia, with smaller “local zones” already opening in Perth and Brisbane. 

Monash University lecturer and technology expert Dr Adel Toosi said that having cloud regions close will also improve privacy and security at a time when people are increasingly concerned about data hacks. 

“If you have to send all the data that is generated in the Australian region somewhere else, to another country or place, that’s a big problem,” he said. 

“But now we have data centres which are managed locally, so you’re sure where the data is going. Data centres are also managed by cloud providers and they have lots of expertise and a very strong team working on security. So the cloud is more secure in many aspects.” 

Check out: Law firms file class action lawsuits on Medibank data breach 

Amazon Web Services predicts its Melbourne site will bring $6.8 billion to Victoria’s economy over the next 15 years, along with 2500 jobs annually across the network. 

University of Melbourne professor Rajkumar Buyya said that Amazon won’t be the only tech company to establish more Australian data centres in the future because of the rising demand for the cloud. 

“The adoption of the cloud has been rapidly growing during the past 10 years,” he said. 

“During COVID-19, more people worked from home and a lot of access to computing capabilities went through the cloud instead of private servers. That model is getting very, very popular because it’s an easier form of computing.” 

With AAP 

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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