Intelligence Agency Partners With Amazon to Set Up $2 Billion Defence ‘Cloud’

The system will be ‘air gapped’ but how secure is it?

A visitor tries out a tablet computer next to a cloud computing and technology symbol at the Deutsche Telekom stand at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair in Hanover, Germany, on March 5, 2013. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is partnering with Amazon Web Services to set up a cloud system to streamline classified information sharing between defence and security agencies.

The project, expected to be operational by 2027, will cost $2 billion (US$1.3 billion) during its establishment, including ongoing maintenance, and usage costs.