The absolute best part of my job is spending time with customers, getting underneath their biggest, hardest and most complex problems – as well as understanding their ambitions and opportunities.
The Public Sector and what we do for Government is dear to my heart, and being at the AWS Public Sector Symposium in Canberra this week was simply awesome.
It’s an exciting time in the Public Sector. More and more Australians are demanding seamless digital experiences – from transport, health care to education and more.
And Government agencies are taking note and accelerating their digital ambitions to improve citizen experiences, as well as tackling big societal issues such as cost of living, sustainability innovation and future of work.
As the Public Sector accelerates digitisation, they need to accelerate the move off legacy platforms and embrace new capabilities around Data, AI and CX. But with rising cyber threats, they need to simultaneously improve their security posture.
No longer can we be secure OR innovate - it is an AND – and will always be an AND.
Our public sector has an entirely different set of sovereign data obligations that other organisations may not face. These are all about upholding a commitment to keep our country safe and our data secure – and I applaud that.
While the opportunities are compelling, the complexity is much higher than ever before.
Cloud is required to run modern data platforms, and the range of network technologies that need to be secured and monitored are critical.
Hearing these opportunities and challenges reminds me why Telstra has been investing in these capabilities for decades – and will continue to do so.
Our Sovereign Secure Solution for Cloud helps customers securely migrate, modernise and innovate on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.
An end-to-end cloud connectivity solution, customers can connect their AWS workloads to a secure and resilient network, while operating in their cloud environment on an AWS landing zone purpose-built for government, and suitable for up to and including PROTECTED-level data.
We are actively rolling out Sovereign Secure Cloud for our federal government customers and can’t wait to share it with others.
The solution brings together Telstra’s Sovereign Secure Edge, Telstra Secure Cloud Connector, and a secure landing zone on AWS, along with the assurance that Telstra’s Managed Security Operations Centre (SOC) is delivering 24/7 data cyber detection and monitoring.
An AWS landing zone is a well-architected, multi-account AWS environment that is a starting point from which customers can deploy workloads and applications. It provides a baseline to get started with multi-account architecture, identity and access management, governance, data security, network design, and logging.
It means customers with critical infrastructure and protected services needs can now migrate their workloads in the knowledge that Telstra’s nation-wide, and highly resilient network is protecting their data.
This is the feature I’m most excited about, as it’s designed to be secure from the start, avoiding the common issue of trying to retrofit security, IT service management controls or assessing risks after the migration is complete. We can also tailor the solution to meet a customer’s specific needs, no matter where they are on their cloud journey.
This differentiated solution packs a punch, and I’m proud that it makes Telstra the first AWS partner in Australia to offer all three elements in one:
I said the best part of my job was talking to customers. The only thing equal to that is the Telstra team I work with - and the exceptional talent and passion across Telstra, Versent and our partners in the cloud and security space (including AWS.)
For customers with critical infrastructure and protected services, we have an awesome team of government specialists.
It’s the combination of talent, expertise and passion across Telstra and Versent that helps customers through a smooth transition to the cloud, and accelerate their digital transformation goals.
Once this solution has been adopted, we want our customers to feel confident to innovate and deliver improved, more secure, more effective and more connected experiences for their customers, or in the case of government, their citizens.
We’ve also created this solution with the future in mind – making sure it supports the adoption and scalability of advancing capabilities, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Telstra team and I loved being part of this week’s symposium. We are proud of our AWS relationship and know that by collaborating and leveraging each other’s strengths and shared commitments to security and resiliency, we can ignite innovation and deliver the best outcomes for our customers.
We are so proud to bring something that’s not only first to the market, but something we know that government customers need when a one size fits all solution just isn’t going to tick all the boxes.
