Salesforce joins ASD's Certified Cloud List

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has added Salesforce to the Certified Cloud Services List (CCSL) of authorised suppliers for government agencies.

The updated list shows that Salesforce PaaS and SaaS services have been approved for the handling of unclassified but private and potentially sensitive information.

The company is the sixth provider to be added to the list, joining AWS, Macquarie Telecom, Microsoft, Sliced Tech and Vault Systems. Each company added so far has been granted the same classification level.

To obtain certification, Salesforce was evaluated under the ASD’s Infosec Registered Assessors Program (IRAP).

The CCSL was launched in 2015 as part of an update to the ASD’s Information Security Manual.

The Department of Finance has meanwhile launched a tender for a refresh of the Whole of Government Cloud Services Panel designed to broaden the range of services they offer to government agencies.

The expanded Cloud Services Panel will provide a non-mandatory procurement mechanism for agencies to access cloud services without conducting a full tender. It will cover SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and specialist cloud services.

While the existing panel includes limitations on the services vendors are able to provide based on the categories they have been grouped into, the refreshed panel will include no such limitations.

Panellists will be able to suggest new categories of services and add services to any of the service models, Australian Government CTO John Sheridan said in a blog post.

“The approval time frame for new services will be reduced to 10 business days to provide a greater flexibility and be more responsive to both agencies and panellists,” he said.

“We will also begin releasing detailed monthly reports to panellists and agencies to provide greater insight into the usage of the panel.”

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