VENDORiQ: More Federal Agencies Switch to Certified Cloud Hosting Providers

The Latest

6 September 2022: Transport for NSW has exited Global Switch by contracting Fujitsu to provide decommissioning services worth AU$1 million. It will now use a combination of public and private Cloud services, including data centres (managed by Kyndryl) and GovDC, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Earlier in the year, the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Communications Media Authority all exited Global Switch after the government required its agencies to only host data through certified data centre providers.

Why it’s Important

Remediation programs for removal are expensive as part of ensuring the mitigation of security risks in data management and storage. However, the investment in data sovereignty is worth the cost since sensitive data, especially from the government, can be highly sensitive. Certified strategic data centre providers offer guaranteed jurisdiction and local management of operations.

Enterprises, however, must consider risks in migration that include huge volumes of data that can slow down the exit process. In addition, decommissioning activities necessitate prioritising highly sensitive information first as well as considering the payload in the data centre without putting their supply chain integrity at risk.

Who’s impacted

• CEO
• Procurement teams
• IT teams

What’s Next?

• When considering Cloud management tools, security certifications and assessments are a sign that the vendor has best practices in place, but are not a panacea for mitigating risk. Treat them accordingly. 
• Over the last three years, IBRS has noticed a significant mind shift in how organisations think about database infrastructure and, in particular, the Cloud. For enterprises moving to the public Cloud, begin by identifying critical vendors who provide critical software, services, and hold sensitive data across the organisation.