Google reveals New Zealand 'Cloud Region' plans

Google Cloud ANZ VP Alister Dias says customers will get controls enabling low latency and the highest security, data residency, and compliance standards. Photo / Dallas Kilponen

Google has revealed plans for its first "Google Cloud Region" in New Zealand - which it says will offer the same performance boost and data sovereignty benefits as if it built its own data centre here.

The tech giant declined to answer questions on when the Cloud Region would open, its location or budget or partners. But indications are that Google will be one of the global cloud providers that will use the giant data centres that will be built in northwest Auckland by DCI.

"While this will not be a physical data centre, Cloud Regions are located within data centres that may be owned by Google, or by a third-party co-location provider. It will include the same hardware, software, and operations found across our Google Cloud data centres," a Google spokesperson said.

Asked if Google would be working with DCI, the spokesperson said, "We are still working out the details."

Google could at least say a clutch of existing customers had lined up to support its cloud region announcement, including Vodafone NZ, Trade Me and Kami (an Auckland-based, global success story in online software for schools).

Inside Google's new Auckland office, opened last year. Photo / File

Kami chief technology officer Jordan Thoms said, "This investment from Google Cloud will enable us to deliver services with lower latency [lag] to our Kiwi users, which will further elevate and optimise our free premium offering to all New Zealand schools."

Google Cloud Australia & New Zealand vice president Alister Dias, said, "Whether it's getting smarter about the use of data, or having the flexibility of an open platform that can adapt to changing market and regulatory conditions, our New Zealand region will give customers key controls that will enable them to maintain low latency and the highest security, data residency, and compliance standards."

Google expands NZ team

Last year, as it moved into larger Auckland digs, Google announced plans to establish an NZ-based engineering team. The project had no set timeline, amid pandemic disruption, but there were plans to hire locally, recruit from offshore and possibly relocate some Google engineering staff from the US.

This week, a spokesperson updated, "The Google New Zealand team has now grown to over 70 people [from 50 in July 2021] with headcount growth in a number of teams, including our local engineering presence which reinforces our local commitment and contribution to New Zealand's technology ecosystem." Google NZ is currently recruiting in the area of site reliability engineering (a role it says "combines software and systems engineering to build and run large-scale, massively distributed, fault-tolerant systems.")

Google senior vice president for cloud infrastructure Urs Hölzle - who last year relocated from the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters to spend a year in NZ - is still here, the spokesperson said.

Inside Google's new Auckland office. Photo / File

DCI Data Centres on Friday held a sod-turning ceremony for a 5.8-hectare site in Albany, Auckland that will house 80,000 servers - one of two DCI sites that will total just under 10 hectares in a $600 million project that will consume 50 megawatts of power when running at full-tilt. The first servers going live from mid-next year.

The Brookfield-owned DCI offers "wholesale white space" and for the major cloud players. And, while none of the parties will confirm or deny, indications are that will do the same here (a DCI Overseas Investment Office filing list shares a construction site address with fellow Microsoft, and DCI has provided colocation services for Google and Amazon Web Services overseas).

Google's Auckland Cloud Region will become its third in the region behind Sydney and Melbourne.

Although coy on its NZ spend, Google has put major financial muscle behind the ongoing global expansion of its cloud infrastructure. In June, the company announced a Google Cloud Region for Mexico, which it said would be backed by a US$1.2 billion commitment over five years.

A Google data centre in Nebraska, announced in April this year, has a US$750m budget.

All up, Google plans to invest a total of US$9.5b in data centres by the end of 2022.

Market tracker IDC said worldwide public cloud services revenues grew 29 per cent to US$408b in 2021 as "the tailwinds of the pandemic" continued to accelerate upgrades to online software and services, and a boom in data centre construction.

IDC said that in "foundational cloud services", including infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service, the five largest global players for 2021 were Amazon Web Services (with 40.0 per cent of the market), Microsoft (21.9 per cent), Alibaba Group (6.1 per cent) and Google 5.5 per cent.

Clark welcomes Google move

"This is another major vote of confidence for New Zealand's growing digital sector, and our economic recovery from Covid-19," Digital Economy Minister David Clark said.

"Becoming a cloud region will mean New Zealand businesses will have a choice to keep their data onshore, and work with Google Cloud's domestic team to really drive digital transformation here.

"Protecting people's data and privacy is critically important to the Government. Onshore Cloud facilities give us stronger control of New Zealand's data because it is held here, where our laws and protections apply.

"Last year in September, New Zealand welcomed the news that Amazon Web Services (AWS) had decided to establish a Cloud region here and the year prior, it was Microsoft Azure. These companies also work alongside other existing Cloud services such as Catalyst Cloud, Revera Cloud Services and Datacom.

"These three investments represent both a shot in the arm for our economic rebuild but also lay the foundation for our plans to be a digital nation and out aspirations to grow the digital economy."