Microsoft has now become the 5th cloud provider to be approved by the federal government’s hosting certification framework to handle secured public sector data.
Just a week before, Microsoft quietly decided to become a ‘certified strategic’ service provider, approximately two months after the first providers had been certified.
Government standards for cloud providers
The framework’s highest possible level of confirmation is certified strategic, which has been created to “reduce supply chain and data Centre ownership challenges.”
However, unlike lower-level certification of ‘certified assured service provider,’ web hosting companies approved at this degree have enabled the government to clearly state ownership and control requirements.
From July 2022 onwards, data from the entire current government systems must be saved by certified strategic service providers.
The Digital Transformation Agency is, however, yet to certify any service providers or data centers at the certified assured level.
Organizations may also use unapproved service providers. They can do so for “non-sensitive data or wherever their internal risk evaluation calculates suitable.”
According to a representative from the tech giant, the certification establishes a ” new benchmark”. It would be for the corporation’s cloud services throughout all three Australian provinces.
“As a number of our fundamental web services, such as Microsoft 365 have been approved under the framework”.
New Strategic Cloud Provider
After a $600 million increase in the government’s agreement with Microsoft, it became a certified strategic provider.
Sources claim the arrangement with Data#3, an exclusive Microsoft license reseller, has now become worth $809 million over 6 years. This is more than 8 times than in 2019.
The DTA has also approved DCI Data Centers’ a facility based in Sydney under the framework, along with Microsoft.
DCI Data Centers already has a data Centre situated in Melbourne. It announced its decision to establish a facility in the city of Darwin just last month.
Panelists on the government’s data Centre arrangement were among the first ones to be qualified for certification in April, with ‘indirect’ providers such as cloud providers following suit in September.
