James Kavanagh (Microsoft)
Objective has transitioned more than 100 customers onto Microsoft Azure AU Central region, in a bid to securely scale operations through the platform.
The migration centres around Objective Connect, a content collaboration platform built for government upon Microsoft Azure, spanning over 120,000 users in 70 countries.
Locally, customers in Australia and New Zealand moving to the platform are aiming to take advantage of increased levels of security and resilience, allowing for protected communication with external partners.
As reported by ARN, Microsoft Azure AU Central was the first global scale cloud to be awarded Protected Certification by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and is located out of two highly secure data centres in Canberra.
Among the early adopters of the Microsoft Azure AU Central hosted Objective Connect platform are the National Blood Authority (NBA) and IP Australia.
“Objective Connect ticked all of the boxes - locally hosted, complete auditability of every interaction,” said Peter O’Halloran, CIO of NBA.
“It is IRAP assessed, complying with the requirements of the ISM set by Australian Signals Directorate - which is critical when we are exchanging sensitive information.”
O’Halloran estimated that the NBA has saved over $100,000 in staff hours per year and more than $40,000 in postage, courier and printing costs.
“With Objective Connect Link, we get deep integration with Micro Focus Content Manager, our on-premise document management system,” he added.
Before deploying Objective Connect, O’Halloran said the NBA “struggled with the transparency and traceability” of its information when shared outside of the organisation.
Consequently, O’Halloran said this posed a “significant risk” with regards to legislative compliance, adherence to government policy and information governance best practice.
Through leveraging Objective Connect running on Microsoft Azure AU Central, O’Halloran said the business can share information from electronic document management systems including Micro Focus Content Manager (HP TRIM), Microsoft SharePoint and Objective ECM.
“This is precisely what Azure AU Central was designed for,” added James Kavanagh, engineering lead of Australia at Microsoft. “It’s the scalable global cloud that supports secure and robust computing and collaboration for Australia’s national critical enterprises.
“Objective Corporation and Microsoft have a long and trusted relationship, and we are delighted to be working together on the natural evolution of Objective Connect by making it available from the ultra-secure and resilient AU Central Azure region for Objective customers which need uncompromising performance.”
Objective is a long-standing supplier to the public sector in Australia and internationally, in which the business is required to meet stringent security, compliance and governance requirements.
“Being able to offer Objective Connect and Objective Connect Link from the Microsoft Azure AU Central region delivers additional peace of mind that derives from Azure’s Protected status awarded by the ASD,” added Tony Walls, CEO of Objective.
“Our customers need the highest level of assurance that the information they share with trusted partners will be secure, that any actions will be auditable, and that the cloud platform will deliver the performance and resilience they need. Microsoft Azure AU Central delivers on all counts.”
