Hyperscale cloud and its benefits to the Australian economy
18.12.2023 - 05:19
New research by economics firm Mandala shows that adoption of hyperscale cloud technology unlocks $6.3 billion every year in benefits for Australian businesses and the economy. Hyperscale cloud also directly creates over 8,000 jobs for people working in diverse roles from tech trades peoples to ICT professionals across Australian data centres. This research is the first time the economic effect of the unique capabilities offered by hyperscale cloud have been quantified.
Hyperscale cloud is the critical infrastructure underlying Australia’s technology ecosystem
Hyperscale cloud offers globally standardised services to Australian businesses. It enhances user experiences with high performance and low latency across various domains, including AI, machine learning, big data, and virtual reality. Research suggests that Generative AI, supported by hyperscale cloud, has the potential to add up to $115 billion annually to the Australian economy, and AI more broadly will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
Acting as a central pillar within the Australian digital ecosystem, hyperscale cloud serves as a critical intermediary, facilitating daily business operations and software relied on by everyday Australians. While non-hyperscale cloud providers offer tailored capabilities, hyperscale cloud delivers globally-leading, comprehensive, sophisticated feature-sets to Australian businesses.
This study focuses on measuring the positive impact of the unique capabilities of the hyperscale cloud to Australian businesses. It examines the distinct features that set hyperscale cloud apart from non-hyperscale cloud solutions. While recognising that shared capabilities between hyperscale and non-hyperscale also contribute to economic value, our focus remains on the benefits derived exclusively from the hyperscale environment.
Hyperscale cloud technology is crucial for Australian businesses, delivering approximately $6.3 billion in benefits per annum
Key areas of this impact include:
1) Enhanced Capabilities: Hyperscale cloud's advanced technological functions including on AI, machine learning, AR/VR and data querying have led to productivity boosts, generating an additional $3 billion in benefits for Australian businesses.
2) Operational Resilience: Hyperscale offers increased reliability of services and diminishing expected downtime compared to non-hyperscale cloud, translating to $530 million in financial savings (avoidance of downtime cost). Hyperscale also decreases the expected likelihood of a successful security breach by 30% due to high investments and global threat intelligence, preserving an estimated $480 million annually within the Australian economy.
3) Cost Efficiencies: Hyperscale cloud has trimmed IT infrastructure spending by 5%, amounting to savings of up to $980 million per year for Australian businesses, thus improving cost efficiencies.
4) Market Access: By facilitating access to global markets, hyperscale cloud has unlocked more than a 40% increase in revenue for Australian businesses, broadening their opportunities to serve customers overseas seamlessly and with low latency.
Hyperscale cloud creates direct employment opportunities for over 8,000 Australians, offering a broad ranges of opportunities to a diverse workforce
Over the past decade, direct jobs in hyperscale cloud have more than tripled, from 2,330 employees in 2011 to 8,240 in 2021. This growth demonstrates hyperscale cloud’s vital role in job creation across a spectrum of roles, from tech trades to ICT specialists.
The workforce within hyperscale cloud is diverse, with 73% of the employees aged between 15-44, highlighting the sector's appeal to young Australians. This diversity indicates that hyperscale cloud is a driver of high-tech jobs, and also supports a variety of other professional roles crucial to the operation and management of these services.
Upskilling Australians to work in hyperscale cloud and data centre related roles will help them fill the additional global demand for 140,000 data centre staff by 2025.
Read the full report here.
Read our latest posts
The Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index: the impact of climate change on Australia's schools
For the first time, the Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index has been used to analyse the risk of climate change to 9,829 primary and secondary schools across Australia. The index uses IPCC climate modelling along with Zurich's proprietary climate impact assessments to understand the unique risks faced by individual schools. Extreme heat is projected to reduce writing, spelling, grammar & punctuation, and numeracy by over 7% in some parts of the country by 2060, with students in the Northern Territory and Queensland disproportionately impacted. Two-thirds of schools in Australia currently face high climate risk. This is set to increase to 84% of schools by 2060 under an intermediate climate scenario with 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Australian students are projected to experience 34 annual heatwave days by 2060.
2 Feb, 2025
Unlocking Growth: How Fintech Payment Solutions Empower Small Businesses
Small businesses have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the transition to fintech-powered modern payments systems, with the average benefits across all fintech solutions totalling $9 billion as a result of their adoption. Of the $9 billion in net benefits, $8 billion has come from increased revenues by adopting these services, and $1 billion from reduced costs. Notably, over 30% of businesses reported an increase in revenue of over 2.5% as a result of adopting a fintech payment solution.
31 Jan, 2025
Realising WA's green iron potential
Mandala has collaborated with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Western Australia to launch a landmark report highlighting the immense decarbonisation and economic benefits of green iron produced in WA. Large-scale production of green iron in WA could reduce global emissions by 1.2 per cent by 2050 – effectively offsetting nearly every tonne of CO2 currently produced in Australia – while generating $74 billion in economic value and supporting 19,600 direct jobs. Green iron represents an opportunity for Western Australia to play a leading role decarbonising the emissions-intensive steelmaking process.
6 Jan, 2025
Growing Australia's iron advantage
Our latest report, commissioned by Boundless, presents new research that reveals Australia's ability to competitively supply 20% of global green iron by 2050. This would reduce global steel emissions by 1.7% - surpassing Australia's current total emissions of 1.2% - while adding $103 billion to the economy and supporting 27,500 direct jobs. However, realising this opportunity requires addressing significant challenges including a significant build out of renewable energy generation, storage and transmission and the commercialisation of green iron technologies. Urgent policy support is needed to address these challenges and unlock private investment.
28 Nov, 2024