More than 100 Objective Connect customers have now transitioned onto Microsoft Azure AU Central region, the cloud expressly designed for national critical infrastructure computing.
Objective Connect is the trusted collaboration platform for over 120,000 users in 70 countries. The Australia and New Zealand customers transitioning to Azure AU Central can be assured of unparalleled levels of security and resilience – and a platform designed to support secure collaboration with external trusted partners.
Designed for high speed, high security, resilient computing, Microsoft Azure AU Central was the first global scale cloud to be awarded Protected Certification by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) confirming the high level of trust Azure commands. Located out of two highly secure data centres in Canberra, AU Central ensures data remains assured and in Australia.
Consequently, organisations using Objective Connect hosted on Microsoft Azure AU Central have peace of mind when it comes to sharing highly sensitive information with their external trusted partners, knowing that every interaction will be fully protected, traceable and auditable.
Among the early adopters of the Microsoft Azure AU Central hosted Objective Connect platform are the National Blood Authority (NBA) and IP Australia.
Before deploying Objective Connect, the NBA struggled with the transparency and traceability of its information as soon as it was shared outside of the organisation. It posed a significant risk with regards to legislative compliance, adherence to government policy and information governance best practice.
Ensuring information was accessible while guarding against the threat of unauthorised access to highly sensitive patient information could be a “nightmare” according to Peter O’Halloran, Executive Director and Chief Information Officer of the NBA.
Now using Objective Connect running on Microsoft Azure AU Central, the NBA’s collaboration with external trusted parties is secured; it can share information from electronic document management systems including Micro Focus Content Manager (HP TRIM), Microsoft SharePoint and Objective ECM, with every interaction properly tracked and data synchronised.
“Objective Connect ticked all of the boxes – locally hosted, complete auditability of every interaction. It is IRAP assessed, complying with the requirements of the ISM set by Australian Signals Directorate – which is critical when we are exchanging sensitive information. And with Objective Connect Link, we get deep integration with Micro Focus Content Manager, our on-premise document management system,” said O’Halloran, who estimates that the NBA has saved over $100,000 in staff hours per year and more than $40,000 in postage, courier and printing costs.
James Kavanagh, Microsoft Azure engineering lead for Australia said; “This is precisely what Azure AU Central was designed for. It’s the scalable global cloud that supports secure and robust computing and collaboration for Australia’s national critical enterprises.
“Objective Corporation and Microsoft have a long and trusted relationship, and we are delighted to be working together on the natural evolution of Objective Connect by making it available from the ultra-secure and resilient AU Central Azure region for Objective customers which need uncompromising performance.”
As a long-standing supplier to the public sector in Australia and internationally Objective is acutely aware of its unique security, compliance and governance requirements. Objective solutions feature unique features to meet those requirements and also the governance and auditability expectations of the public sector.
According to Tony Walls, CEO of Objective; “Being able to offer Objective Connect and Objective Connect Link from the Microsoft Azure AU Central region delivers additional peace of mind that derives from Azure’s Protected status awarded by the ASD.
“Our customers need the highest level of assurance that the information they share with trusted partners will be secure, that any actions will be auditable, and that the cloud platform will deliver the performance and resilience they need. Microsoft Azure AU Central delivers on all counts.”
