Macquarie Hosting Data Centre, the Intellicentre. Australia’s most highly certified data centre

Intellicentre Achieves Defence Signals Directorate Full Accreditation

Sydney, Australia – 20 September 2007 – Macquarie Hosting, a division of Macquarie Telecom was today awarded the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) ‘Full Gateway Accreditation’ to the level of ‘Highly Protected’ for its Sydney data centre, the Intellicentre. This accreditation reinforces the Intellicentre as the most highly certified data centre in Australia.

This is the fifth consecutive year Macquarie Hosting has been DSD certified to the “Highly Protected” level and is the first time ‘Full Accreditation’ has been awarded. The highest level of accreditation offered by the DSD, ‘Full Accreditation’ recognises Macquarie Hosting’s Intellicentre Gateway meets all of the following:

• Government Physical Security Manual (PSM) requirements pertaining to design and operation;
• Gateway Certification Guide standards regarding appropriate risk management strategies and countermeasures for effective gateway operation; and
• Australian Communications Security Instruction Number 33 (ASCII 33) standards related to the handling of Commonwealth data.

DSD Gateway Full Accreditation is a rigorous standard to achieve and maintain. In addition to the three-stage certification process, it requires annual external audits to ensure ongoing compliance.

The DSD accreditation is an independent assessment that acknowledges a Government service provider's Gateway has been configured and managed appropriately and that suitable safeguards and processes have been implemented and are operating effectively.

For Macquarie Hosting’s Government and enterprise customers, the DSD accreditation offers assurance that the data centre Secure Gateway provides protection from external threats appropriate for systems and data up to and including the “Highly Protected” level of classification.

The full DSD Gateway accreditation supersedes Macquarie Hosting’s previous ‘provisional’ accreditation and builds on its existing ISO 27001 ISMS certification.

“The level of accreditation the team has achieved with this audit is fantastic,” said Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting, Macquarie Telecom.

“It’s testament to Macquarie Hosting’s commitment to providing our Government and enterprise customers with the highest level of assurance that their hosted databases, networks and operating systems meet best-practice standards for gateway protection.”

Key vendor certifications also include Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, Redhat Enterprise Hosting Partner, VMware Authorised Hosting Partner.