Brighton Council, which straddles Hobart’s northern fringe, has become the first Tasmanian council to go ‘serverless’.
The organisation joins a growing wave of innovative businesses around Australia committing to cloud-based software.
The council is the first of Tasmania’s 29 local governments to completely embrace cloud technology, putting it firmly at the forefront of innovation in Australian local government.
All council business – including rates, financials, asset management and GIS mapping – is now live on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
“Now, there is no server infrastructure, so we’ve eliminated the risk of a server crashing and the associated cost issues, staff frustration and deadline disruption,” said Brighton Council general manager Ron Sanderson.
“Furthermore, all our input is encrypted and stored in the cloud and we don’t need to worry about backing up files.
“When you build in the lightning quick response times and a greater sovereignty over our business data, moving to Azure became a no-brainer for us.”
Mr Sanderson says council staff members are enthusiastic about the cloud-based software and it gives them the flexibility to work away from the office.
However, local government has struggled to keep pace with their private sector counterparts, according to Sanderson.
“The serverless environment is being rolled out across the private sector, but councils, especially small ones, still struggle to manage their IT with limited budget and resources.”
Michael Bennett, State Director, Tasmania, Microsoft Australia said, “Brighton Council are undergoing a true transformation in the way they deliver services to citizens, powered by the cloud.
“As an organisation, it has led the way among its public sector peers and its constituents in northern Hobart will be the true benefactors of the investment in technology.”
Brighton Council has a 20-year history of selling internally developed local government software packages and the organisation currently has 32 clients across Australia.
One such example of the organisation’s digital innovation is CouncilWise, a software company established and owned by Brighton Council.
CouncilWise’s solutions provide seamless integration across all key local government functions and the business is currently working with Microsoft to fast-track the rollout of Microsoft Azure to other councils in all states.
