OzHub to raise cloud profile in Australia

Last month Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr launched OzHub, a cloud initiative with the aim of building “Australian consumer and business confidence in cloud computing”.

The OzHub alliance founder members are Macquarie Telecom, Fujitsu, InfoPlex and VMware. Other parties may soon join as partners.

While welcoming the initiative, Senator Carr said, “There is a narrow window to keep the cloud capabilities onshore. Our political stability, and the stability, transparency and integrity of our institutions, can set Australia apart in the industry.

“There will be a proper partnership between government and the industry and my department will support this initiative. We have already asked the IT Industry Innovation Council (ITIIC) to look at cloud computing’s industry development opportunities and challenges,” said Carr.

The ITIIC has submitted its report to Senator Carr, who will report on its findings by year’s end.

“We do not want Australia to lose this opportunity, as in the past we have squandered other such opportunities by not acting quickly enough,” said Carr.

“This report puts an incredibly important question on the table: when it comes to cloud computing, will Australia aspire, as we so often do in this country, to be nothing more than a back office operation, a branch office for other people, will we be satisfied with a few scraps of local content?

“Or will we aspire to something more - that is something whereby we can play a significant role in meeting the needs of our society, and perhaps being able to be competitive internationally at providing services?” said Carr.

Coinciding with the OzHub event, Carr also launched a report by Lateral Economics - The potential for cloud computing services in Australia - which was prepared for Macquarie Telecom.

Nick Gruen, author of the report, posed the question: what do consumers of cloud services want?

“Security, privacy, integrity and regulation, all similar to what people expect from the finance industry,” Gruen said.

“The finance industry deals with deposits and keeps them safe. Likewise the cloud deals with deposits of information and keeps them safe,” Gruen said.

Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information Brendan O’Connor said, “Data and privacy protections need to be built in to systems from the beginning, not bolted on as an afterthought.

“The government expects companies that collect and hold personal information will protect it with appropriate and effective security measures,” said O’Connor.

Members of OzHub will sign a voluntary code of practice that includes commitments to handling data in accordance with Australian privacy laws.

The Singaporean Government has just let a tender for its G-Cloud project, a private cloud to be used by the government when existing public clouds cannot provide adequate security and governance, as reported in The Straits Times. The tender has engendered tremendous response from companies such as SingTel, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, IBM and Microsoft.

Alvin Kok, Head of Infocomm services for SingTel, reported that the company embarked on the cloud journey five years ago. SingTel is now up to what it terms ‘Telco 3.0’: the provision of on-demand cloud services.

In collaboration with Hewlett-Packard, SingTel provides 150,000 users with software as a service (SaaS). Another 800 enterprise customers also use the services.

“We are now looking at Smart Cloud - not just a dumb pipe - that will enable SingTel to move beyond providing local services to more services into regional areas, so the next step is Telco 4.0 for regional areas,” said Kok.

OzHub has confirmed it has established a regulation framework to promote good business practices and greater transparency to consumers about crucial issues such as where their personal data are held.

“There is strong interest for other industry participants to join OzHub. Now that the founding members have confirmed the framework and the necessary criteria for accreditation, which will be published in December, we expect to accept new members early in 2012,” said Matt Healey, Executive National Government & Regulatory for Macquarie Telecom.