Amazon Web Services (AWS) has finally been awarded Protected certification status by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), joining Microsoft, Dimension Data, Macquarie Government, Sliced Tech and Vault Systems.
In March last year, AWS said it had finalised its assessment through the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP), which is a prerequisite for inclusion on the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Certified Cloud Services List (CCSL) under the Protected classification level.
The new Protected status in AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) region, will be a boost for Aussie AWS partners with the public sector work they can undertake involving highly sensitive and classified Government data.
The ACSC Protected certification covers 42 AWS services including compute, storage, network, database, security, analytics, application integration, management and governance.
Peter Moore, AWS Asia Pacific regional managing director public sector, said the classification was a major milestone for its customers and opens up new opportunities for partners.
“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,” head of ACSC Alastair MacGibbon said.
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) is already using AWS to help deliver its cloud-based platform for hosting applications, cloud.gov.au.
“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,” DTA CEO Randall Brugeaud said.
AWS partners have embraced the news. 2pi Software, which is based in regional NSW, was also recently admitted to the DTA Digital Marketplace.
“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,” 2pi Software CEO Liam O’Duibhir said.
“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.”
TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung said it will help their government customers move faster into the cloud. TechnologyOne has been working with AWS for the past eight years in delivering its enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS).
“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,” Chung said.
Australian software vendor Nuix uses AWS to help deliver its litigation and eDiscovery platform, Ringtail, to customers.
“With AWS achieving ACSC Protected status, Nuix customers benefit without compromising on end to end business critical workflows, the pace of innovation, and high performance,” Nuix group CEO Rod Vawdrey said.
