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In 2014, Australia’s Objective Corporation wanted to expand its unique, high-security, content-collaboration service – Objective Connect – to customers around the world. The company selected Microsoft Azure because the cloud platform can provide support for the open source based service, as well as meet the required compliance and regulatory requirements in multiple countries. By using a single, global cloud partner, Objective Connect is now available in 68 countries.
The Business Challenge: Convinced that its service had global potential, in 2014, Objective Corporation looked for the best cloud infrastructure model to kick-start rapid global expansion.
“We wanted a cloud provider who could partner with us around the world,” says Rob Mills, Global Vice-President, Objective Connect. “As our customers are in government, health and regulated industries, the information they deal with is highly sensitive and must be hosted in their local geography. So along with security, Data Sovereignty is key. In Australia, more than 15,000 public servants use our service, and they require their data to be stored in Australia, where it is subject to Australian law. Overseas governments want the same assurance in their own territories.”
Mills’ other main challenge was finding a cloud service that proactively supports his company’s choice of technologies. “We wanted to consolidate the engineering effort on a single, consistent, global technology platform, instead of using different providers in various countries” he says. “That partner had to be one hundred percent supportive of the technologies we use.”
The Solution: Objective Connect is built using a blend of technologies, with some in an open source stack. Objective Connect is built in an Angular/JavaScript framework with a CentOS 6.0 operating system and uses the open source MySQL databases. In Australia, the company had begun rolling out the Objective Connect service with an alternative cloud provider. For Objective Connect to be able to switch to a different cloud provider, that provider had to support the blend of technologies and inspire confidence that support would continue as the product evolves.
In late 2014, the company’s engineers assessed the cloud infrastructure service, Microsoft Azure. Microsoft was rapidly expanding its global footprint of Azure data centres, giving it the scale that Objective needed in a global partner. But the fundamental question for Objective engineers remained: could Azure seamlessly support their choice of technologies — now and in the future?
David McGhee, Microsoft Global Business Strategist, helped Objective engineers understand that Azure would meet their needs. “We have deliberately built Azure so that it is open to any language, interface and platform. With Objective Connect we proved it works.”
Over a five-month period, the Microsoft team in Australia worked directly with Objective to build an Objective Connect pilot on the Azure platform. They also assessed Objective’s commercial needs, to ensure that an Azure-hosted Objective Connect service would suit the company’s business model and provide customers with the service levels they required.
The Benefits: