Microsoft to support NSW gov cloud shift under new five-year partnership

The NSW government has extended its relationship with Microsoft for another five years, with the renewed agreement to support agencies in some of its largest clusters to migrate to the public cloud.

The new agreement, announced on Wednesday, will “support the NSW government through collaboration, security, communications and data analytics, and modernising services using the Microsoft cloud”, Microsoft said.

A total of 25 agencies across the departments of Health, Transport and Justice, which account for around 400,000 users, will be supported under the partnership, including volunteers working in public safety.

Microsoft said the government’s “commitment to improving its cyber security posture and moving 25 percent of its ICT services to the public cloud by 2023 formed the foundations for the [partnership]”.

NSW government chief information and digital officer Greg Wells said the new agreement will boost the technical capabilities of public servants through a “comprehensive skilling and investment program”.

The agreement is also expected to provide “enhanced security, customer data protections and privacy services”, likely through the use of Microsoft Azure, and enable “participation from SME and sovereign suppliers to the NSW government”.

“These requirements have been highlighted more than ever during the pandemic, and we look forward to continuing to build on the partnership between the government and Microsoft to further improve public services,” Wells said.

While it is unclear when the renewed partnership was signed, Microsoft said it had already resulted in several new projects, including a KPMG-led project to replace the Department of Communities and Justice’s legacy payment and contracting system.

The new system – which will be used to manage the contracting and funding of 1800-odd service providers working on a number of programs – will be built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

Microsoft said Dams Safety NSW is also working to migrate Microsoft SharePoint workflows used for auditing, compliance and water management to the Power Platform, while Local Land Services is using Dataverse and Power apps to improve its reporting processes.