Two new Microsoft Azure regions in Australia are available to customers, making Microsoft the only global provider to deliver cloud services specifically designed to address the requirements of the Australian and New Zealand governments and critical national infrastructure, including banks, utilities, transport and telecommunications.

We build our cloud infrastructure to serve the needs of our customers by delivering innovation globally and listening locally. To support the mission-critical work of crucial organizations in Australia and New Zealand, we’re delivering our global cloud platform through a unique partnership with Canberra Data Centres.

A key to our new Australia Central regions is the ability for customers to deploy their own applications and infrastructure within Canberra Data Centres directly connected via Azure ExpressRoute to Microsoft’s global network. This offers a great deal of flexibility and surety on network performance and security, making these regions ideally suited to the complex challenge of modernising mission-critical applications over time. Australian federal government customers can leverage their Intra Government Communications Network (ICON) for direct connectivity.

With heightened scrutiny of supply chain assurance in government and critical national infrastructure, we are proud to deliver these services in partnership with Australian-owned Canberra Data Centres. They are the premier data centre provider in Australia, operating facilities designed for the handling of secret level data.

Microsoft offers Azure from three cities in Australia including Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra with connectivity to Perth, Brisbane and Auckland. Other global providers are limited to only one Australian location, so Microsoft provides the leading flexibility for both high availability and resiliency. We understand it is essential for critical national infrastructure to have disaster resilience options that can distribute data to multiple regions without compromising on retaining data residency within Australian borders. Azure already serves a crucial purpose in the transformation of critical Australian enterprises:

The Victorian Supreme Court is undertaking a digital transformation which uses Azure to connect all 34 courtrooms and underpin a digital case management solution to streamline and speed the process of justice.

The Department of Human Services has been exploring how intelligent Azure cloud services and bot technologies can support employees and ultimately expand consumer engagement channels.

Our Australia Central regions are restricted to the community of Australian and New Zealand governments and critical national infrastructure sectors, along with their trusted partners. They include Australian local partners like Veritec, MailGuard and Intelledox as well as global partners like Axon, Citrix and Veritas. It’s the combination of an ecosystem of partners delivering from our trusted Azure cloud platform that enables more rapid access to innovation.

We continue to expand our global and local cloud infrastructure to meet the growing demand and rapid innovation of cloud services. This milestone is another step in Azure’s global momentum. Earlier this month, we announced plans for two new Azure Government United States regions for data classified as secret. Two weeks ago we also announced the availability of our Azure regions in France and our plans to deliver cloud services from new regions in Switzerland, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Around the world government and critical national infrastructure providers are transforming operations and the services they deliver to citizens and customers. They are rapidly modernising their business and mission-critical applications through the flexibility, scale and reach of Azure, partnering with our unmatched partner ecosystem, and placing their trust in us to create a resilient and responsive platform for growth.

I encourage you to learn more at the Azure Australia Central Regions website.