An Adelaide-based data centre provider has won a $1 million contract to house computer systems for the company charged with delivering Australia’s Future Submarine project.

Naval Group Australia, a subsidiary of French company Naval Group, announced the contract on Monday saying YourDC would provide data storage space for NGA’s “sensitive” systems.

Founded in 2015, YourDC provides cloud and storage services to a number of government agencies, which are subject to non-disclosure agreements, and operates two data centres in South Australia.

“We’re really excited to be part of this submarine building process and it’s fantastic for the state,” YourDC CEO Scott Hicks told Government News.

“(The contract is) one we’ve been working on for some time and our facilities have been built with Defence in mind so we were very keen to be the winner in this race.”

Naval Group Australia CEO John Davis said YourDC was selected as the preferred data centre provider following a competitive process.

He said the contract demonstrates Naval Group’s commitment to maximising Australia’s industry capability across the Future Submarine program.

“Naval Group Australia is focussed on creating local jobs and benefitting local businesses as we deliver the Attack Class submarines,” Mr Davis said in a statement.

“As a local business, YourDC will play a critical role in supporting Naval Group Australia as our workforce rapidly increases and our facilities expand.”

The Future Submarine Program is the largest Defence procurement in Australia’s history.

The $80 billion Future Submarine Fleet will replace the six Collins class submarines, which are due to be withdrawn from service by 2036. submarines.

The submarines will be constructed at the Adelaide shipyard.

Shift data hosting policy

The announcement of the contract comes after two significant developments in government data hosting policy.

Last month, Government Services Minister Stuart Robert announced that the government was examining data sovereignty requirements which would see sensitive government data hosted only by Australian companies.

And  last week, the Australian Cyber Security and Centre and the Digital Transformation Agency released new cloud security guidance for government agencies, to replace the previous certification process (CCSL) overseen by the Australian Signals Directorate.

Mr Hicks said while sovereignty had always been central to YourDC’s bid, the changes were “great” for companies like YourDC.

“Our bid has always been about data sovereignty in mind … to really cater for customers like this, where they care about where their data is,” he said.

“In a disaster they can walk in there and restore drives rather than it being a public cloud scenario like AWS.”