Macquarie joins VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative

Macquarie Telecom Group is now a member of the VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative, a move the company says reflecs its decade-long commitment to sovereign IT capability.

The growing importance of data sovereignty, scrutiny of data access and control, and increasing geopolitical friction is leading governments and regulated industries to closely analyse their cloud strategies and evaluate who may have access to their data. The VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative helps customers identify and engage with trusted national or regional cloud service providers to meet their unique sovereign cloud requirements.

VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative participants offer sovereign cloud solutions for customers in highly regulated industries, such as banking and finance, health care, energy, government services, public sector and telecommunications.

Macquarie’s designation as a VMware Sovereign Cloud Provider follows the company’s own rigorous assessment of its data centres and cloud services in accordance with the VMware Sovereign Cloud framework. These include protecting critical data for both private and public sector organisations with audited security controls, ensuring compliance with data privacy laws, improving control of data by providing both data residency and data sovereignty, and delivering national capability for the digital economy.

“We’re very pleased Macquarie Telecom has joined the VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative. The added value of data sovereignty, jurisdictional control, and data security and compliance means that Macquarie Telecom customers are preparing for changing regulations, increased security threats and geopolitical uncertainty — all of which are growing challenges,” said Mike Reddie, Senior Director of Cloud for VMware ANZ.

Managing Director of Macquarie Telecom Group Aidan Tudehope said the certification from VMware is important validation of the sovereign message his company has been championing for more than a decade.

“Becoming a VMware Sovereign Cloud Provider is further validation of Macquarie’s long-term position on the importance of sovereign capability at a time when national resilience is more important than ever in Australia,” he said.

“In the lead-up to the election the Albanese government announced its commitment to building sovereign, domestic IT capability to cultivate local industry and keep our data safe.

“Increasing geopolitical friction has elevated this conversation, with government and regulated industries casting a closer eye over their cloud strategies and who has access to their data.

“We’ve walked the talk with data sovereignty for a long time, providing customers with not just data residency through our suite of onshore data centres, but complete sovereignty, with data managed onshore and safeguarded from the whims of foreign jurisdictions,” he said.

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