ISMS.online Expands Its Global Reach with Sydney Data Hosting

Removes Data Sovereignty Barrier to its All-In-One-Place GRC Solution

Accommodates APRA’s Data Management Restrictions for CPS 234

Encourages Financial Institutions to Follow Queensland Country Bank’s Lead

Leading GRC Tech ISMS.online announced today a new data hosting capability in Sydney to support the customer need for data sovereignty in Australia. The capability to store and backup Australian data in-country means the cloud platform is now accessible to organisations that were previously restricted by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) CPS 234 regulation. Whilst this service progression is expected to increase take-up of the platform in the finance and insurance sectors, it represents a benefit to any Australian company seeking that extra assurance of how their data is handled when using the platform to manage one or more of the 35 standards and frameworks it accommodates.

Michelle McCarthy, ISMS.online’s Head of APAC, highlighted this recent development as another example of their flexible, customer-focused approach. She said, “The ability to store and back up user data in Sydney is a key milestone in our path to leading the GRC Tech space in Asia Pacific. We accelerated our existing plans for local hosting in Australia to meet the data sovereignty needs of our customer Queensland Country Bank. It’s a terrific outcome as we’re now in a position to more comprehensively support all entities regulated by APRA, as well as any Australian organisation seeking to demonstrate the extra assurance that comes with data residency.”

Head of ICT at Queensland Country Bank, Carl Mathieson said, ” As a member-owned bank we’re always looking out for the best interests of our Members so we conducted research for a suitable tool which enables us to report to APRA, our Board and Executives on our compliance against the standard. From our first encounter with the ISMS.online platform, it was clearly the tool for us to coordinate and control our Information Security Management System and Business Continuity Management System all in one place. The fact that ISMS.online was able to respond so rapidly to our data sovereignty requirement with a local hosting service was impressive, and it gives us confidence in what to expect from their future service levels. We’re really looking forward to working with ISMS.online to make this a success for us, and for other mutual financial institutions in Australia.”

A successful migration of existing data took place in mid January 2022 with customers and partners across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore now being housed in the Sydney site. The Amazon Web Service (AWS) data centre is the third AWS site used by the SaaS to store its customers’ data, joining sites in the United Kingdom and Ireland. ISMS.online’s Chief Product Officer Sam Peters explained the choice of AWS for the Sydney infrastructure. “When it comes to our customers’ data privacy, being able to provide certainty through our supply chain is paramount. AWS continues to be the standout choice for us when it comes to hosting. We’ve seen peerless levels of reliability, we trust the AWS commitment to the principles of ISO 27001 and we appreciate the extra resilience that their multiple ‘availability zones’ provide.”

ISMS.online introduced a dedicated in-market presence in the country in late 2021 to build on its long association with customers and partners in the region. The new data storage and hosting capability further demonstrates its continued commitment to its Australian customers and expansion plans for Asia Pacific. CEO of ISMS.online Mark Darby said, “A key aspect of our global success to date is our capacity to anticipate and respond to local conditions. With the Sydney data centre, we’ve achieved an important milestone on our roadmap for success in the Australian market and we’ll continue to invest in our growth in the region. Data localisation is now a fundamental part of doing business in many parts of the world, which is why the setup of localised data centres in our key geographies will be a focus for ISMS.online throughout our wider global rollout.”