Beginning the journey to cloud in Australia and New Zealand

With the recent news of the Australian Cyber Security Centre certifying AWS to PROTECTED – the highest data security certification available in Australia for cloud service providers – and the recent announcement of an increased scope of services available at PROTECTED, many public sector customers in the region want to know how to get started on the cloud. To help, AWS created the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Public Sector Agency FastStart Guide.

The ANZ Public Sector FastStart Guide answers the most frequently asked questions for government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organisations. The guide covers six different types of challenges areas, based on the perspectives of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) – business, people, governance, platform, security, and operational – which helps organisations travel an accelerated path to successful cloud adoption.

Public sector customers in Australia and New Zealand are turning to the AWS Cloud to help deliver more secure and reliable services. For example, the Australian Digital Transformation Agency recently signed a whole-of-government volume sourcing agreement with AWS. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also announced that AWS would be the chosen provider for the national census in 2021. This followed ABS’s successful deployment of parts of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey on AWS. Digital Earth Australia (DEA) detects physical changes across Australia in unprecedented detail and uses AWS for computing and storing large amounts of satellite data. On Australia’s beautiful but sometimes dangerous beaches, Little Ripper drones use AWS to help lifeguards save lives.

Australian customers are using the cloud to overcome different challenges such as looking to establish scalable governance of their cloud systems. They also want to keep a high pace of delivery, while retaining secure and compliant systems.

AWS provides a range of resources to navigate these challenges including whitepapers, hands-on tools like Quick Starts, and the Amazon Builders’ Library. Well Architected Reviews can also help customers build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient solutions.

Additionally, following the certification of AWS to PROTECTED in January 2019, AWS released updated Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) PROTECTED documentation via AWS Artifact. This report provides the ability to plan, architect, and self-assess systems built in AWS under the Digital Transformation Agency’s Secure Cloud Guidelines.

Get started with the ANZ Public Sector FastStart Guide or contact your account team for more information on accelerating your cloud journey.