Government agencies and regulated organizations can now move highly sensitive data and applications to AWS Sydney Region to speed innovation and transformation
Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has been awarded PROTECTED certification by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), enabling Australian public and private sector organisations to store and process highly sensitive data at the PROTECTED security classification level in the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region. With the broadest and deepest set of security capabilities and accreditations, millions of AWS customers depend on the world’s most trusted and audited cloud infrastructure. For more information on AWS’s security capabilities and accreditations, please visit: https://aws.amazon.com/security/ and https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/.
Since 2012, Australian government organizations, regulated entities, and the companies that serve them, have relied on AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region to deliver mission-critical services that have helped them transform. Now, with ACSC PROTECTED certification covering 42 AWS services including compute, storage, network, database, security, analytics, application integration, management and governance, these customers can take advantage of all the security benefits without paying a price premium, or needing to modify their existing applications or environments.
This announcement supports the Digital Transformation Agency’s (DTA) Secure Cloud Strategy, which aims to make it easier for the Australian government to invest in cloud technology to improve resilience, lift productivity, and deliver better citizen services.
“The accreditation awarded to the AWS Sydney Region to run and store PROTECTED security classification workloads in Australia is a major milestone for our existing customers and paves the way for others who may have been waiting for this certification in order to begin their cloud journey on AWS,” said Peter Moore, Asia Pacific Regional Managing Director, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services. “This accreditation also generates new opportunities for our AWS Partner Network to build value-added services and solutions to serve AWS customers in the region and will inspire even more startups to build their businesses on AWS.”
Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Mr Alastair MacGibbon said, “The ACSC has certified 42 AWS services at PROTECTED, and we have certified an additional four services to AWS’s UDLM CCSL offering. This provides Australian Government agencies assurance that these services meet stringent Australian Government security requirements. The government provides a robust risk-management framework to assess cyber security risks. The ACSC recommends customers review the certification documentation and make sound risk based decisions when choosing a cloud service.”
“Cloud technology is in huge demand, and in line with that, the ACSC is also evolving its programs to continue lifting cyber security standards across the whole of the Australian economy. It’s another way we are making Australia the safest place to live, work and play online,” Mr MacGibbon added.
“The Digital Transformation Agency is already using AWS to deliver cloud.gov.au, a secure cloud-based platform for hosting website applications that helps government agencies build digital services quickly. Cloud is a critical part of the DTA’s whole of government transformation agenda. The PROTECTED certification of AWS makes it easier for agencies to leverage cloud services,” said Randall Brugeaud, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).
TechnologyOne, a member of AWS Partner Network, welcomed the announcement. “For more than eight years, we have worked with AWS to deliver TechnologyOne enterprise SaaS,” said Ed Chung, Chief Executive Officer of TechnologyOne. “With Federal Government customers among our early adopters of cloud, the accreditation for AWS to run PROTECTED level workloads will help our government customers move even faster, as they transform their business and the way people work. They can focus on the business of government, rather than the technology required to support it, and achieve greater resilience by adopting SaaS on AWS.”
Nuix is an Australian technology company that produces a software platform for indexing, searching, analysing, and extracting knowledge from unstructured data.. “Nuix uses AWS to provide its industry-leading litigation and eDiscovery platform, Ringtail, to customers worldwide. With AWS achieving ACSC PROTECTED status, Nuix customers benefit without compromising on end to end business critical workflows, the fastest pace of innovation, and high performance,” said Rod Vawdrey, Group CEO, Nuix.
The announcement is also significant for Australia’s small to medium enterprises looking to take full advantage of the benefits of migrating mission-critical workloads to AWS. 2pi Software, a fast-growing tech-focused SME based in regional New South Wales, is a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN). “This announcement, combined with our recent admission to the DTA Digital Marketplace, means that we can now offer ACSC PROTECTED level secure cloud solutions on the world’s leading cloud platform,” said Liam O’Duibhir, Chief Executive Officer. “This will help create regional jobs, as our business can now serve government customers across Australia. AWS and the Federal Government are removing some of the traditional barriers of entry for small Australian businesses like 2pi Software.”
To learn more about AWS Services in Scope by Compliance Program, please visit: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/services-in-scope/
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For over 12 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 165 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 60 Availability Zones (AZs) within 20 geographic regions around the world, spanning the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and the UK. AWS services are trusted by millions of active customers around the world—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—to power their infrastructure, make them more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
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