This seems like a fairly direct response to the recent spate of DDoS attacks in NZ. If you cared a lot about data sovereignty you couldn't be in cloud.
Many large NZ orgs were "out in the cold". As everyone else in the world moved under the umbrella of "big cloud" they got more and more tempting as targets.
Yeah you are right it must be a happy accident of timing. The whole "NZ is highly vulnerable to DDoS" thing has been brewing for a while though.
I was trying to express that there's a level of non-cloud datacenter use in NZ (for data sov reasons) that would seem anachronistic anywhere else and this is closely related to the prevalence of DDoS attacks targeting the country.
I still think it is an interesting dynamic that the effectiveness of big cloud in blunting DDoS pushes risk over to countries with no "in region" facilities.
Many large NZ orgs were "out in the cold". As everyone else in the world moved under the umbrella of "big cloud" they got more and more tempting as targets.