The Commonwealth of Australia has signed deal allowing all federal, state, territory agencies and departments to purchase cloud services from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The three-year volume sourcing deal is worth AUS$39 million (US$27m) and will help government agencies avoid the need for separate contract terms and multiple administrative steps across departments when buying cloud services.

The whole government, all of it

Universities and government-controlled corporations are also included in the simplified procurement model that allows government entities to pay less for the services due to the economies of scale involved.

This deal comes just six months after AWS managed to procure a contract to process protected Australian government data. The company achieved the protected security classification in the Sydney region where protected government data can now be carried by 42 AWS services. AWS' Sydney region launched in 2012 and contains three availability zones.

This classification is currently the highest available security level approved by the federal government.

But AWS was beaten to punch to be the first cloud giant to gain this qualification by Microsoft who were approved for this security classification in April 2018.

The terms of the government-wide deal were not disclosed, but Australian Minister for government services Stuart Robert said the agreement with AWS will grant savings for the government and taxpayers.

Robert said: "Government agencies regularly engage AWS services, each with separate contracts. The new arrangement represents an opportunity to provide cost reductions through efficiencies of scale," he said.

"Over a number of years, aggregated procurement has allowed us to leverage the bulk-buying power of the government to negotiate consistent and improved terms and conditions."

Speaking to CRN Australia, Peter Moore, regional managing director for AWS Asia Pacific and Japan, said: "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.”