Fredex - Fotolia
Top 10 ANZ IT stories of 2023
We recap the top 10 stories in Australia and New Zealand, including the innovations and challenges that organisations in the region have faced over the past year
Following the data breaches at Optus and Medibank last year that had cast the spotlight on the cyber resilience of Australian companies, the Australian government recently unveiled its latest cyber security strategy that will focus on shoring up the country’s cyber defences.
The move is an important one that will lay the foundations for Australian companies to continue with their digital transformation efforts while mitigating the cyber security risks of an increasingly digitised business landscape.
In this round-up, Computer Weekly recaps the top 10 stories in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), including the innovations that Australia is spurring in artificial intelligence (AI), the growing use of cloud to drive business outcomes and how Australian engineers have made a mark in the global database market.
1. How the Australian government is approaching AI
The Australian government is experimenting with AI use cases in a safe environment while it figures out ways to harness the technology to benefit citizens and businesses.
2. Australia ups ante on cyber security
Australia’s new cyber security strategy will focus on building threat blocking capabilities, protecting critical infrastructure and improving the cyber workforce, among other priorities.
3. Aussie-built database migration tool makes global debut
MongoDB’s engineering team in Australia has built a database migration tool to help customers migrate traditional relational databases to its document database.
4. Inside MLC Life Insurance’s cloud journey
The Australian insurer spent a fair amount of time addressing people-related challenges in its move to cloud, which has improved its security posture and reduced infrastructure spending, among other outcomes.
5. Australia to shore up cyber and digital capabilities in Budget 2023
Australia is spending more than A$2bn to strengthen cyber resilience, improve digital government services and fuel AI adoption, among other areas, in its latest budget.
6. How lab grown neurons could power the future of AI
Melbourne-based Cortical Labs’ lab-grown neurons could speed up AI training in a more energy-efficient way and its work has caught the eye of hyperscalers and Amazon’s CTO.
7. ANZ CIOs flag priorities amid inflation concerns
CIOs in Australia and New Zealand are concerned about inflation and plan to adjust their technology priorities to optimise resources and combat cyber threats.
8. Australian organisations underinvesting in cyber security
Over half of Australian organisations failed to invest enough in cyber security over the past three years, though awareness is improving in aftermath of high-profile data breaches.
9. AWS opens Melbourne region, to invest $4.5bn by 2037
Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) new Melbourne cloud region will better serve Australian customers such as ANZ Bank and is expected to benefit over 2,500 full-time jobs in the country.
10. How technology is fuelling CommBank’s customer experience
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has built up capabilities in cloud and microservices while empowering engineering teams to solve complex customer problems.
