AWS gains PROTECTED status for Australian government data

AWS gains PROTECTED status

AWS, the cloud computing business of Amazon, has now been certified by the Australian Government to host ‘protected’ data. This follows the April 2018 accreditation of Microsoft’s Azure/Office 365, which was the first large-scale public cloud provider to be granted PROTECTED status (read our blog Government rewrites security manual for coverage, and a bit of controversy, surrounding that milestone).

AWS has joined Azure, Vault Systems, Sliced Tech, Macquarie Telecom and Dimension Data on the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Certified Cloud Services List (CCSL) at the PROTECTED level.

Forty-two of Amazon’s services have been certified to PROTECTED level, and according to Amazon’s blog on the accreditation, this means AWS offers “the most PROTECTED services of any public cloud service provider.”

Media statements saw the heads of both the Australian Cyber Security Centre (Alastair MacGibbon) and the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) (Randall Brugeaud) comment on the certification, with Brugeaud also saying that the additional certification of AWS would make it easier for government to use cloud services, which is an essential part of the DTA’s transformation strategy.

Salsa Digital’s take

We’ve been using AWS's cloud services for many years at Salsa, and so we’re particularly thrilled that they’ve now completed the IRAP certification process and been granted PROTECTED level. Most of our existing projects are hosted on the AWS cloud, including the second-generation GovCMS and Victoria’s whole-of-Victorian-government platform, SDP. It’s also great to see cloud services expanding in Australian government.