Sydney, Australia. 12 July 2021 . Microsoft announced today that Thales has won the Defence and Intelligence 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for the company’s collaboration on the Nexium Defence Cloud Edge Solution. Thales was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognise Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honourees chosen from a set of more than 4,400 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Thales was recognised for providing outstanding solutions and services in Defence and Intelligence.
Developed in Australia for the Australian Defence Force, Nexium Defence Cloud Edge (NDC Edge) delivers a sovereign capability, built on Microsoft Azure Stack technology, that is designed to be compatible with Five Eyes nations, as well as humanitarian aid and civilian applications.
The theatre level NDC Edge enables the analysis and distribution of data in real time, accelerating the decision-making cycle to gain and maintain operational tempo.
NDC Edge takes this capability from the Strategic Headquarters level to the Tactical Edge, to the dismounted warfighter and the edge of the battlespace. This secure tactical Defence Cloud that gives deployed forces access to the right information at the right time is crucial to enable rapid and informed decisions.
“We are delighted to be recognised by Microsoft with the 2021 Defence and Industry Partner of the Year award. This achievement validates the collaborative efforts of both the local and global Thales and Microsoft teams. This collaboration has produced a sovereign, customer-focussed solution that draws from the very best of the world-leading capabilities from across both organisations. NDC Edge is able to deliver a clear capability advantage across all domains from the headquarters to the tactical level to deliver a decisive impact on the battlefield, ” Chris Jenkins, Chief Executive, Thales Australia.
It offers a wide array of possible configurations, from very high-capacity and easily scalable infrastructure to all-in-one containerised systems that can establish a headquarters as a cloud node rapidly, and link it to deployed forces quickly and securely.
This capability enables deployed forces to securely share critical information across domains, multinational coalitions and other agencies to allow a shared common operating picture.
“I am honoured to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Rodney Clark, Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Solutions, Channel Sales and Channel Chief, Microsoft. “These remarkable partners have displayed a deep commitment to building world-class solutions for customers—from cloud-to-edge—and represent some of the best and brightest our ecosystem has to offer.”
NDC Edge is designed to be flexible, with the ability to rapidly re-role in theatre, introduce new capabilities and integrate with legacy platforms, allowing commanders at all levels to build and enhance mission capability quickly.
