Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has entered into a contract with the government of Australia to put up a data center facility that will be secure enough to handle even classified information. The world’s largest software maker will build the facility in conjunction with a locally based firm, Canberra Data Centers.
With the project the system underpinning such services as tax, welfare, border protection. Immigration and healthcare will be modernized by mid next year. The two data regions will be constructed in Canberra and will be known as Australia Central 2 and Australia Central 1.
“We’re building cloud platforms close to where the data is. By building our cloud infrastructure in the data centre where most government data already lives we can really unlock some of that data and innovate on top of it,” said James Kavanagh, Microsoft Azure’s lead engineer in Australia.
Emergency services already using Microsoft products
Microsoft’s partner in the project, Canberra Data Centers, has been in existence for close to a decade and has several datacenter assets which are all in Canberra. Currently 40 government agencies and departments use these facilities. This includes emergency services in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland which all rely on Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure to respond whenever there is a natural disaster. A new hospital located in Victoria, Bendigo Hospital, is also offering its services via Azure
Through the project the government of Australia will be able to benefit from innovative technologies that include blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning. According to Kavanagh, it could result in a tax system that is more efficient. Australians will also find easier access to services offered by the government.
Top-level security accreditation
Earlier in the year some of the Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure services had been added to the Certified Cloud Services List by the ASD – Australian Signals Directorate. The two regions that will become operational next year are the only privately owned data centers in Australia which have received security accreditation that allows them to hold top secret data from the government.
The addition of the two regions in Canberra now increases the number of worldwide Azure regions to more than 40. Besides Microsoft, other tech companies from the United States that are eyeing an expansion in Australia include Google and IBM who recently opened new regions in Sydney. Amazon Web Services has been present in Australia for five years now.
On Monday shares of Microsoft Corporation rose by 1.5% to close the day at $73.59.
