AUCloud, NextDC unveil Sovereign Bridge service

Cloud infrastructure-as-a-service provider AUCloud and data centre operator NextDC revealed they are building a nationwide Sovereign Bridge service to provide government agencies and critical national industries access to sovereign cloud services. 

The service aims to provide a seamless transition to sovereign data protection or migration from on premises to the cloud from any location in Australia. 

AUCloud said that due to the growth in the number of sectors beholden to the obligations of The Critical Infrastructure Bill there had never been a higher demand for sovereign services.

AUCloud chief executive Phil Dawson said the sovereign bridge would provide partners and customers with connectivity between their existing data centre infrastructure and AUCloud sovereign cloud services.

“Using AUCloud’s sovereign bridge, partners and customers will be able to benefit from faster, more efficient, more capable and more secure local access to their sovereign workloads across Australia.”

Dawson added the sovereign bridge was a critical component of the company’s national expansion and an important milestone for Australian data security. 

AUCloud became the first organisation “Authorised” to provide PROTECTED level services in August last year.  The company said it was also the only recognised VMware Sovereign Cloud Provider in Australia.  

The cloud services and colocation provider said “for the many organisations benefiting from VMware virtualisation infrastructure, this provides additional benefits and significantly reduces the risks related to migrating workloads or storing and backing up data to the cloud.” 

NEXTDC chief customer and commercial officer David Dzienciol added “we know connectivity is a huge consideration for our customers when it comes to how they treat their data, but equally having the confidence that same data is secure and accessible locally is something taken very seriously without exception.”

AUCloud is hosted within and 20 percent owned by NextDC.

In an ASX announcement this February, AUCloud reported strong revenue growth for the first half of FY 2022. 

Following gains from customers and partners during the period, it reported revenue of $2.5 million, up 73 percent from $1 million year over year, for the six months ended 31 December 2021.