Telstra has announced its plans to create a cloud environment built specifically for federal, state and local government, catering for the adoption of cloud services within the public sector in Australia. The Government Cloud which will be strictly hosted in Australia for data sovereignty and safety, is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2015.
According to Telstra, the new environment will significantly increase the ability of government organizations to access highly secure and compliant cloud services and help achieve their cloud first policy objectives across both 'UNCLASSIFIED and PROTECTED' level data. It also complements previous collaborative initiatives such as the investment in the Federal Government Managed Secure Network Gateway, which allows agencies to connect securely, said Telstra.
Telstra added that it has a dedicated security approved team operating its secure service desk operations to government, and operates a Government Accredited Secure Facility to provide proactive network security for customers’ cloud networks, data, applications and devices.
Erez Yarkoni, Executive Director Cloud, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services
Telstra has a long and successful history working with governments and we’re committed to ensuring our relationship continues to grow as technology requirements change and evolve. As governments move into a new era of service delivery transformation to meet the current and future digital expectations of its citizens, the ability to use protected cloud services is as critical to their future plans as it is to the private sector – digital disruption is impacting everyone. Importantly, Telstra’s Government Cloud will provide confidence that the data is safe and hosted in Australia. It will also help enable the public sector to achieve greater efficiency and generate more value from its ICT investments. In line with our own cloud strategy to offer increased flexibility and choice, this new, highly secure cloud platform will help enable governments to be leaders in the use of cloud services and provide opportunities for continued innovation and collaboration.
