Multinational cloud service provider Amazon Web Services has entered into a State Purchase Contract with the Victorian government.

The agreement provides standard terms and conditions for any government department or government-owned entity in the state, opening access to more than 200 cloud services.

It extends to administrative offices, local councils, and entities under control of one of the eligible entities, giving smaller government entities the opportunity to leverage standardised conditions and buying power that’s traditionally limited to larger organisations.

Writing in a blog post, AWS Country Director Australia and New Zealand Iain Rouse says the deal will see the acceleration of cloud based government services in the state.

“The Victorian government has released a digital strategy for a future-ready Victoria with three key outcomes for better, fairer, more accessible services, a digital-ready public sector, and a thriving digital economy,” Mr Rouse says.

“This agreement helps accelerate delivery of those outcomes by enabling Victorian government customers to innovate faster on behalf of citizens of Victoria.”

The new agreement also provides standardised terms for access to AWS training and certification programs.

AWS says this will make it easier for the Victorian Government to boost the digital skills and capabilities of public sector workers in the move towards digital service delivery.

It comes as Victoria is set to become the second AWS infrastructure region Australia, with one region already established in Sydney.

“Having a second region within the country provides additional IT architectural options for our local customers – including the ability to store backup data in geographically separated locations within Australia,” Mr Rouse said.

Amazon recently renewed it cloud sourcing arrangement with the federal government and in June entered a $57.6 million deal with the NSW customer services department.

The WA government signed a mandatory common use arrangement with AWS in 2020.