Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The Government is committed to the use of cloud to improve the efficiency of its services while maintaining data security and provide services that are more responsive to business and community needs.

Our E-Government and the Digital Economy plan recognises that the community expects Government services to be responsive and available where and when they want them. By adopting cloud, the Government will be able to deliver better and more efficient services.

The Government procures approximately $6 billion of ICT services annually, but only a fraction of this is spent on cloud services.

To unlock this potential, we are releasing the Government’s new cloud policy, which requires Government departments and agencies to adopt cloud where it is fit for purpose, provides adequate protection of Government data and delivers value for money.

Government departments and agencies are now required to consider cloud first where it is appropriate for their ICT requirements.

To further encourage the adoption of cloud, we have streamlined the decision making process for agencies considering cloud and other outsourced ICT arrangements.

We want to see a greater adoption of cloud services and cut through the red tape generated by the process developed under the previous government.

Under the new arrangements, Agency Heads will be able to approve proposals to place certain information in either offshore or domestically hosted (onshore) public cloud.

The removal of this unnecessary red tape will promote productivity and the efficient use of Government resources.

The new guidelines titled Information Security Management Guidelines—Risk management of outsourced ICT arrangements (including Cloud) are available on the www.protectivesecurity.gov.au website.

The new cloud policy is available at www.finance.gov.au/policy-guides-procurement/cloud.