Dell Virtustream is the latest global player to secure a spot on the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) Certified Cloud Services List (CCSL).
As a result of the listing, the Dell Technologies-owned company is now able to host unclassified dissemination limiting marker (DLM) government information on its local Dell Virtustream Cloud.
Virtustream joins Amazon Web Services (AWS), Education Services Australia, IBM, Macquarie Government, Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Sliced Tech, and Vault Systems in offering Unclassified DLM classification.
Sliced Tech and Vault Systems[1] received protected-level certification for their respective cloud services in March last year, currently the highest security level approved by the ASD CCSL.
The companies were joined in September by Macquarie Government, part of the Macquarie Telecom Group, in receiving "protected" level accreditation[2]; NTT-owned Dimension Data in February[3]; and then Microsoft in April for its Office 365 platform and specific Azure services[4].
Microsoft's accreditation was last week probed during Senate Estimates[5], with Australia's Cyber Coordinator Alastair MacGibbon, facing the committee in his policy capacity that reports to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, defending the Australian government's decision to give the Washington headquartered company a spot on the protected-level list.
MacGibbon was asked whether the information stored on the Australian instance of the Microsoft Azure Cloud will be able to be accessed by overseas staff, as a requirement of the CCSL is that the data be accessed only in Australia.
"I am satisfied that Microsoft Azure, in its protected form as certified by the Signals Directorate -- or the Australian Cyber Security Centre within the Signals Directorate -- will be stored in Australia," MacGibbon said.
"Data can