NEWS
Macquarie advisor says Facebook outage shows Australia over-reliant on overseas platforms
Dr Marcus Thompson believes Australia is ‘ at the whim ’ of companies half a world away with Australian organizations having no alternative platform to reach their stakeholders .
“ Thousands of Australian organizations large and small , commercial enterprises and not-for-profits rely on Facebook to operate and have woken up today with no alternative platform to reach their stakeholders ,” said the Senior Advisor to Macquarie Telecom Group .
“ In Australia we have some of the greatest data and security skills in the world , but we don ’ t leverage them nearly enough to help us connect with each other and with the wider world . Events like this and the recent Fastly outage demonstrate the thin tightrope we ’ re walking on when we rely on companies in other countries for critical digital services and infrastructure .”
Dr Marcus Thompson , Senior Advisor to Macquarie Telecom Group
The Former Head of Information Warfare for Australian Defense believes the latest Facebook outage highlights Australia ’ s over-reliance on international platforms and systems .
“ The outage highlights the over-reliance Australian businesses have on international digital platforms and systems . When cyberattacks or other disruptions inevitably strike these international platforms , with no local , sovereign networks , infrastructure or methods to fall back on , we ’ re at the whim of clean-up and remedial measures taking place half a world away .
Macquarie Data centers ’ full portfolio certified strategic by Australian Government
Macquarie Data centers , part of Macquarie Telecom Group , has announced that its Sydney data centers in the Macquarie Park Data Center Campus and Sydney Central have achieved the Certified Strategic designation under the Digital Transformation Agency ’ s ( DTA ) Hosting Certification Framework .
Certification under the framework is a central feature of the DTA ’ s Hosting Strategy championed by Minister for Employment , Workforce , Skills , Small and Family Business , the Hon . Stuart Robert .
The Australian Government is , through the framework , seeking to exert stronger government controls over the location of government information both at rest and in transit .
The framework provides government agencies with clear guidelines as to the security credentials , capabilities , and corporate ownership and controls of data center providers servicing Australian government agencies .
The Certified Strategic listing of IC1 , IC2 and IC3 means Macquarie Data centers ’ entire portfolio is now deemed by the federal government to provide the highest level of security compliance to support sensitive government data and whole-of-government platforms . This extends to defense data , with the department recently unveiling its Defense Data Strategy , which highlights data as a strategic military asset .
David Hirst , Macquarie Data centers Group Executive
Macquarie Data centers Group Executive , David Hirst , said that the Certified Strategic designation is further proof that the company ’ s portfolio of local data centers provides the highest levels of security with the lowest risk profile when supporting government workloads .
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO APAC 9