Kiwibank, MATTR & Deloitte to use new AWS New Zealand region

Kiwibank, MATTR, and Deloitte have confirmed they will use the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region upon its launch this year.

The three companies join previously announced customers Vector, One NZ, and Datacom in their commitment to AWS's new local cloud region. AWS continues to support numerous customers and partners in New Zealand in their digital transformation efforts, including adoption of artificial intelligence technologies through its worldwide infrastructure.

Customer perspectives

Kiwibank, New Zealand's largest locally owned bank which serves over one million customers, expects to benefit from the local AWS region's impact on performance and security.

"A local AWS region will be a game-changer, boosting performance, resilience, and security while keeping data closer to our customers. Kiwibank's partnership work with AWS on CloudUp for Her has already shown how cloud adoption drives both innovation and talent development. With this expansion, we will be able to scale faster, create more opportunities to upskill talent, and maintain the reliability and security our customers expect," said Ranjit Jayanandhan, General Manager, Experience Hub at Kiwibank.

MATTR, a provider of infrastructure and digital trust services, also highlighted the significance of a local region for meeting data sovereignty needs and supporting the public and private sectors in delivering secure digital services.

"MATTR is thrilled to be part of the launch of the AWS New Zealand Region. This milestone is significant, allowing us to deliver more options to New Zealand customers for their TrustTech solutions, helping to ensure that New Zealand's unique needs around data sovereignty can be met. Having a local AWS Region means we can better support public and private sector organisations in building secure, privacy-preserving digital experiences - all while keeping sensitive data onshore. This provides choice for New Zealand customers using Mattr's verifiable credential and digital identity solutions backed by world-class infrastructure from AWS available locally as the foundation for growth and scale," said Martin Eichenberg, Head of Site Reliability & Operations at MATTR.

Deloitte New Zealand emphasised the role of a local AWS region in supporting cloud adoption and skills development across the technology sector.

"We view the launch of the Auckland Region as an important step forward in New Zealand's technology sector that will enable our customers to generate even more business value from cloud solutions. As a leading AWS Partner, training and certification are key to the development of our people, and we see the Region as driving further education around cloud as the demand for AWS skills increases. This will ignite New Zealand's transition to a technology hub and continue to enhance our reputation for innovation," said Damian Harvey, Technology Partner at Deloitte.

Investment and skills development

AWS has announced its planned investment of NZD $7.5 billion in the Auckland region over 15 years. According to AWS, this investment is expected to contribute NZD $10.8 billion to New Zealand's GDP and enable organisations across a range of sectors and sizes to take advantage of secure infrastructure while meeting local data residency requirements.

As part of its agreement with the New Zealand government, AWS has committed to providing cloud skills training for 100,000 people in New Zealand by 2027. The company reports that over 50,000 individuals have already received AWS cloud training. These training programmes aim to address skills shortages identified in a recent report by Access Partnership, which found that 63% of New Zealand employers consider hiring AI-skilled talent a priority, though nearly 70% report difficulties in finding qualified candidates.

AWS offers several programmes to support this goal, including AWS Academy, AWS Skills Builder, AWS Educate, and AWS re/Start, to address digital skills demand across the nation.

Infrastructure and resilience

AWS states that its infrastructure is designed to provide high levels of security and availability. In New Zealand, a study by Frost and Sullivan found AWS offers 99.54% availability, which the company claims is higher than any other hyperscale cloud provider. AWS's regional design includes a minimum of three physically separate Availability Zones, providing independent power and connectivity, which enhances overall resilience and fault tolerance for local customers.

This infrastructure is intended to protect applications against operational disruptions, including natural disasters and technical incidents, and to support even large-scale or critical workloads with high resilience.

Energy and sustainability

AWS is implementing several strategies to improve the energy efficiency of its data centres, such as optimising data centre designs, investing in dedicated chips, and developing new cooling systems. According to a report from Accenture, AWS infrastructure can be up to 4.1 times more efficient than traditional on-premises data centres, and using AWS's purpose-built silicon could reduce the associated carbon footprint by up to 99% for optimised workloads.

The AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region will be powered entirely by renewable energy at launch, supported by a long-term power purchase agreement with Mercury NZ for the Turitea South wind farm. AWS's parent company, Amazon, has already achieved its global 100% renewable energy target and has been recognised as the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally for five consecutive years.

The AWS New Zealand Region is one of several significant investments by AWS to support ongoing digital transformation and economic growth across the country.