"More than 180 New Zealand public agencies have transferred masses of data to Microsoft cloud computing servers in Australia for storage and processing since 2019. Sensitive courts data could be headed that way."
"...the Ministry for the Environment said it was 'cloud infrastructure agnostic' but expressed a preference in two tenders as the solution had to 'integrate' with what it already had from Microsoft or AWS."
"The NDMS [National Disease Management System] was being hosted within a 'private isolated section' of Amazon's 'cloud' of data warehouse servers in Sydney."
"A power system that is already prone to shortages like those currently forecast on Friday is facing never-before-seen demand from electric vehicles (EVs) and big data centres.
Vector is preparing for it - but the lack of laws and regulations and an Energy Ministry are in its way."
"The government is being warned that tight electricity supply situations could become more frequent, especially on cold winter mornings and evenings.
...
The briefing said the government's dumping the aspirational goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 - and the Lake Onslow 'battery' project along with it - gave the ministry more room to work on the problem."
"The government wants Identity Check to become the go-to tech for proving everyone's identity online, to make access to hundreds of services, and doing e-business, easier and more secure."
Then it needs to engage with ethical technologists about how to build a system from Free Code software. One that doesn't lock us into dependence on private companies and their proprietary technology. It also needs to engage with affected communities from day 1.
"Enter the national data platform - the foundation for a $700m-plus overhaul of data and digital health..."
"The new platform will need to be able to take over, merge and make sense of petabytes of data, multiplying itself daily in 28 disparate, siloed health data warehouses, and processed by a motley, often ancient crew of hospital apps numbering in the thousands."
If it's true that NZ is one of the least corrupt countries in the world., I shudder to think how corrupt other countries must be...
"The idea was hatched by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) as a so-called "lighthouse" project in 2020-21 after Internal Affairs asked it to come up with some special work for Microsoft."
"Microsoft revenues in this country [Aotearoa/NZ] have risen more than fivefold since 2018 to over $1 billion. It pays little tax here and large fees to its US parent. It used to employ about 150 people locally but laid some off in April."