Post Syndicated from Andy Haine original https://www.anchor.com.au/blog/2021/02/25661/
How handy would a cool $5000 boost be to improving your company’s digital disaster plan? Amazon Web Services’ “Project Resilience” may be just the ticket to securing your organisation in the event of a future disaster.
AWS recently announced that they would be launching “Project Resilience” in Australia and New Zealand. With the Project Resilience initiative, local governments, community organisations, and educational institutions will be provided with up to $5,000 USD (roughly $6,500 AUD at time of writing) in account credits to assist them in preparing for the potential impacts caused by human errors or natural and manmade disasters. If your organisation is granted a credit, it will be valid for one year, or until it is fully used up. AWS has advised there will be no opportunity to extend the validity of any credit given, so it is important to plan out your project’s timeline if you intend to apply to ensure you do so at the right time.
In addition to the initial credit, a further ~$6,500 AUD credit may be provided towards the cost of hiring AWS Professional Services where necessary – however, organisations may still choose to seek their own support from a certified AWS partner.
Country Director Australia and New Zealand for Amazon Web Services Public Sector, Iain Rouse, had this to say:
“AWS Project Resilience supports organisations, such as those on the front lines including police, fire, and emergency responders, that play a critical role in ensuring their community’s resilience, by helping them develop and manage the technology-based aspects of disaster preparedness.”
“Project Resilience offers eligible local government, education, and small and medium community organisations up to US$5,000 in AWS credits, which can be used to offset the cost of storing their data safely and securely on AWS. This means that even if computing equipment, such as laptops and servers, are damaged in a disaster, their critical data is still securely stored in the AWS Cloud, and can be easily accessed by them at any time.”
As we know too well from the tumultuous summer we faced in 2019 through 2020, Australia is particularly susceptible to natural disasters, such as bushfires and flooding. New Zealand has also had their fair share of natural disasters in recent years in the form of earthquakes, cyclones and volcanic events. And of course, there is the current global disaster that is COVID-19. Rouse adds that “It is vital for AWS to work along with partners and customers to help people respond to such crises and develop solutions that’ll help reduce the impact of such disasters”.
The initiative is a great move to encourage organisations to move into new digital territories that can greatly enhance their efficiency and survivability with significantly improved data storage infrastructure, as well as more reliable disaster recovery and security processes. The reliability that AWS cloud provides is absolutely crucial when disasters and emergency services are involved. Having your important business data and assets safely stored and replicated across multiple geographical locations goes a long way to ensure a business can quickly recover from the unexpected. It seems Rouse would agree, saying that “One of the many critical tasks in times of a disaster is to make sure data regarding people, services and assets stay safe and accessible, even under threat”.
It’s an exciting time for Australia in the cloud space. Our geographical remoteness and the associated cost of bandwidth has often led to our exclusion, or at least, a significant delay when it comes to enjoying the latest in technological advancements. But times have largely changed in that regard in that our remote location is no longer such a hindering factor. And now, with AWS providing specialised support offerings to their customers based on their particular challenges, the benefits of cloud technologies are only growing.
AWS continues to innovate on their product offering, providing initiatives to their customers of all sizes, with Australia and New Zealand very much included. With Amazon late last year announcing they would be creating a new AWS region in Melbourne (their second region for Oceania), there has never been a better time to make the move to the cloud. (P.s. You can check out our blog post covering the new Melbourne AWS region here!)
While AWS have not mentioned many specifics regarding eligibility, an application form and further information regarding Project Resilience can be found on the AWS website here.
The post appeared first on AWS Managed Services by Anchor.