Oracle has launched a new cloud region for the Australian federal, state and local government in Canberra, offering more than 100 services.
The new region is a highly secure hyperscale cloud platform and is physically isolated from Oracle’s other public and government cloud region and shares no backbone connections with them, including the existing Sydney and Melbourne public regions that are available to all Oracle Cloud customers.
The Oracle Cloud for Australian Government and Defense completed the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) process to comply with the Information Security Manual (ISM) PROTECTED controls.
The completed IRAP assessment at PROTECTED level provides assurance to Australian public sector organizations that Oracle Cloud for the Australian Government and Defense adheres to appropriate security controls.
“The cloud region will be an important addition to our city’s digital infrastructure and adds to the depth and breadth of the capabilities that our cyber security sector can offer,” said Andrew Barr, chief minister and treasurer of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government.
The Australian federal government has budgeted more than US$1.3 billion for digital and ICT in its 2023-24 budget.
Australia’s private and public sectors have trusted Oracle to help accelerate innovation for more than 20 years, according to Stephen Bovis, regional managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Oracle.
“The addition of the new government cloud reinforces our commitment to delivering a secure, scalable, and high-performing cloud platform and business applications that are built to meet the stringent security standards necessary to protect Australia’s most important data,” said Bovis.
Government cloud customers will have access to over 100 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services and applications, including Oracle Autonomous Database, MySQL HeatWave Database Service, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, as well as integrated security capabilities such as zero-trust architecture and Oracle Cloud Guard.
These applications and services will help the public sector harness data to uncover new value and optimise workloads, typically without requiring costly re-architecture. In addition, since 2020, Oracle has maintained a whole-of-government (WofG) agreement with the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to make it easier for Australian government agencies to purchase Oracle products and services.
Supporting security and data sovereignty
Oracle Cloud for Australian Government and Defense enables customers to deploy applications that adhere to Australian data sovereignty and residency regulations for locally hosted sensitive data.
“Digital sovereignty has been a growing issue, with governments increased needs for control over their data, infrastructure, resources, and software. Increasingly, governments are engaging and partnering with trusted cloud partners to stay abreast of their challenges in this journey,” said Daphne Chung, research director of cloud services and software, IDC Asia/Pacific. “Despite economic uncertainties, IDC forecasts Australia public cloud services to grow at a five-year CAGR of 19.2 percent to become a US$19.2 billion market in 2026.”
For additional protection, Oracle Cloud for Australian Government and Defense is restricted to public sector organisations and their partners. Oracle is currently the only hyperscale cloud provider to operate physically separate cloud regions for governments outside the U.S., with eight government regions across the U.S., U.K., and Australia, in addition to multiple air-gapped isolated regions for the U.S. government.
“Building on our experience with sovereign government regions in the U.S. and the U.K., Oracle is providing the Australian government with cloud infrastructure that has the same services and consistent global pricing as our public cloud regions. Why should governments have to pay more and get less?” said Rand Waldron, vice president, global government sector, Oracle.
“This region, restricted to the government community, will make it easier for Australia to bring its most important systems to the cloud and take advantage of the unique efficiency, support, and capability that Oracle offers to drive their mission success,” said Waldron.
