Annual Report 2012 - The Australian Property Institute

The Australian Property Institute Annual Report | 2012Information Technology2012 saw the continued delivery of the National IT Strategy & Data Plan, the goal of whichis to increase reliability and performance of the Institute’s systems and processes.Further improvements are scheduled for 2013, confirming the API’s investment in revolutionisingthe API’s technology platform.The key deliverables of 2012 were:• Further investment into Cloud hosting solutions• Improved Coresoft Application delivery platform• Commencement of a unified technology/communications strategy• Technology infrastructure upgrades.The ongoing investment into Cloud technology continuesto deliver substantial cost savings and advanced security andprivacy measures to the API. The API employs both Saas andIaaS (Software as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service)to deliver a comprehensive Cloud solution.The API’s data hosting solution, provided by AWS (AmazonWeb Services), ensures that member data is secure. The datahosting solution is Level 1 compliant, under the Payment CardIndustry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).The data centres and services employed by the API datahosting solution has achieved ISO 27001 certification. ISO27001 is a global security standard that sets out requirementsand best practices for a systematic approach to managingcompany and customer information based on periodic riskassessments.In 2013, the API plans to move its data hosting solutionto Sydney from Singapore. This will assure a more reliableconnection to its servers and reduced latency issues.A national procurement policy for IT hardware, softwareand services has been in discussion for the last few years.The policy should be implemented by the beginning of 2013and the API expects a considerable reduction in IT costs anddramatically improved service delivery.16