Smartsheet announces new Australian region to meet APJ data regulations

Smartsheet, the enterprise work management platform, is bolstering its commitment to its growing list of Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) customers, such as Fox Sports Australia, the University of Adelaide, and the Western Australian Mental Health Commission, by announcing its newest Smartsheet Region in Australia.

Smartsheet Regions are instances of Smartsheet situated in various global locations, allowing customers to comply with data residency regulations and offering them the freedom to choose where their content is hosted and processed.

The platform is equipped with enterprise-grade security and governance measures, enabling it to cater to a rising customer base, which includes organisations and agencies that abide by stringent governance and regulatory mandates. The establishment of the Smartsheet Region in Australia is set to commence in 2024.

Smartsheet's investment in Australia-based data hosting will give customers the capacity to keep their data onshore within the nation, further extending Smartsheet's worldwide grasp.

The new Smartsheet Region in Australia is set to serve new and existing customers across the APJ, operating from various locations to ensure redundancy, therefore guaranteeing enterprise-grade availability and scale. Other Smartsheet Regions include the EU, U.S., and FedGov, which aids Smartsheet Gov customers.

Nigel Mendonca, Vice President and GM of APJ attributes creating a new Smartsheet Region in Australia to the substantial customer growth across APJ, including the recent expansion into Japan. This development is expected to bring significant benefits to Australian customers and global clients with essential operations in this region.

Nigel Mendonca says: "Our rapid customer growth across Asia-Pacific-Japan, which includes our recent expansion into Japan, has been the catalyst for today's announcement of our newest Smartsheet Region in Australia."

"We are thrilled about what this means for our customers in Australia as well as our APJ and global customers that have significant operations in this part of the world."

Smartsheet upholds compliance frameworks across numerous regulated industries and regulatory standards such as ISO, FedRAMP, HIPAA, DOD IL4, and ITAR. The company will pursue Infosec Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) certification for the APJ region, ensuring it will have suitable policies and security controls to meet Australian Government Information Security Manual requirements.

This, combined with the platform's enterprise-grade security and governance measures, enables Smartsheet to cater to a burgeoning customer base comprising organisations and agencies with the most stringent governance and regulatory requirements.

Iain Elliott, the CTO of Atturra, a Smartsheet Platinum Partner, sees the new regional deployment as a significant opportunity to provide their acclaimed Smartsheet services and solutions to clients with regulatory demands for onshore, secure, and compliant data storage.

Iain Elliott says: "The new regional deployment presents a massive opportunity to take our award-winning Smartsheet services and solutions to all our clients that have regulatory requirements to ensure their data is onshore, secure, and compliant."