Executives from Oracle and the DSTA sign an agreement for the use of the Oracle Cloud Isolated Region platform. (Photo courtesy of Oracle and DSTA)
WASHINGTON — Cloud service provider Oracle has partnered with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) to provide the country’s ministry of defense and armed forces with a pilot of its Oracle Cloud Isolated Region platform, according to an announcement from Oracle and the DSTA.
The Oracle Cloud Isolated Region is a secure, encrypted cloud environment which facilitates data management, cloud computing, artificial intelligence services, and more, while being completely disconnected from the internet — also known as being “air-gapped” — making it more difficult for bad actors to hack into its platform, according to Oracle’s website.
Because of this function, Oracle Cloud Isolated Region is able to operate in classified workloads, such as Impact Level 6 environments — a system reserved for storing and processing information classified up to the “Secret” level.
“The use of Oracle Cloud Isolated Region will transform the Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) functions of the SAF [Singapore Armed Forces], and will modernise its digital capabilities with increased scalability and performance,” today’s announcement reads.
“The demand for secure and scalable cloud solutions is growing. It is more than just data storage and computing — it will be the foundation for a lot of innovation,” Chief Executive of DSTA Ng Chad-Son said in the press release.
“Through this pilot collaboration with Oracle, we will harness advanced cloud and AI technologies to digitalise and transform our operations.”
Oracle has been providing its secure cloud services to the Pentagon long before it partnered with the Singapore defense community. Oracle is one of the four providers — along with Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft — involved in the Pentagon’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program, which aims to offer cloud services “from headquarters to the tactical edge” across various classification levels, per the DoD’s 2022 announcement commencing the program.
“Oracle has safeguarded the world’s most sensitive data for decades. We are pleased to bring this expertise to support the Singapore defence community’s missions,” Rand Waldron, vice president of sovereign relations at Oracle, said in today’s release.
“Our air-gapped, isolated cloud regions bring the capabilities of our public cloud and defence ecosystem to the world’s most secure networks. Oracle is built to deliver the highest levels of security and performance for governments around the world,” he added.
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This partnership comes at a time when tensions between China and Taiwan, along with other US allies in the region, are generating more and more attention. Breaking Defense asked both Oracle and DSTA how this partnership may or may not deter Chinese threat actors from infringing on Singapore’s intelligence operations, though neither responded by time of publication.
