TEAM IM launches NZ’s first sovereign hyperscale cloud

TEAM IM, a prominent New Zealand information management services provider, has announced the deployment of Oracle Alloy in its data centres and the launch of TEAM Cloud, which is touted as New Zealand’s first sovereign hyperscale cloud.

Starting 1 August 2024, the new TEAM Cloud platform will offer over 100 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services. These services aim to assist New Zealand organisations in meeting regulatory and data sovereignty requirements, ensuring that sensitive data remains within the country.

TEAM IM’s local ownership and operation of its data centres mean that New Zealand organisations will gain access to a sovereign hyperscale cloud. This allows all data to be contained and protected within New Zealand, which enhances data residency and digital sovereignty. Additionally, it offers extensive recovery capabilities, boosting resilience. The project, developed within nine months of partnering with Oracle, will operate independently across two data centres in the North Island, both of which are Toitū net carbonzero certified.

“Many companies have promised to deliver New Zealand’s first hyperscale cloud, and we’re incredibly proud to be the first to deliver on this promise,” stated Ian Rogers, CEO of TEAM IM. “This hyperscale cloud will create possibilities for further innovation, such as sovereign AI, which will help strengthen New Zealand’s digital economy, enhancing productivity and financial returns.”

Rogers further added, “Being New Zealand owned and operated, our hyperscale cloud provides true data sovereignty, without any data leaving New Zealand shores. We can also offer a complete range of cyber resilient and low latency IaaS and PaaS services to New Zealand organisations. Our AI tools, residing in New Zealand, drastically decrease the chances of precious intellectual property or confidential data ending up in a knowledge base overseas. Thank you to Oracle for collaborating with us on this initiative and working so hard to quickly bring it to the market.”

The new cloud infrastructure will benefit from OCI’s high performance, security, powerful data analytics, and distributed cloud capabilities. John Eastman, Managing Director of Oracle New Zealand, remarked, “As AI transforms global business and policy, nations must strengthen digital sovereignty to protect critical data. With Oracle Alloy, TEAM IM customers can quickly be onboarded, get access to the latest 100+ cloud services, and leverage leading cloud technologies including GenAI capabilities securely, supporting the transformation and modernisation of New Zealand's organisations and digital sovereignty.”

REACH Media, a New Zealand agency, is among the first local businesses to sign on to use TEAM Cloud. Aaron Glass, Chief Operating Officer of REACH Media, stated, “REACH Media has a long association with Oracle Database and is an existing OCI customer, so we are looking forward to being an early adopter of the first hyperscale cloud tenancy in New Zealand with TEAM Cloud.”

Glass added, “As a development house for the Out-of-Home advertising industry in New Zealand, we're soon to embark on a new project that requires enterprise-grade security and low latency, ideally with sovereignty, ensuring all data stays in New Zealand. The TEAM Cloud solution can't arrive soon enough for REACH. In fact, we will be moving all of our applications to it as soon as we can.”