Open-source content management system (CMS) provider, Umbraco, has announced a new Eastern Australian regional hosting option for Umbraco Cloud customers. International digital agencies now have the flexibility to select whether their Umbraco Cloud projects, data and environments are stored in and served from Australia, the US, Western Europe, or the UK.

Umbraco is the largest open-source .Net CMS in the world, with more than a quarter of a million developers contributing updates and extensions, backed by a commercial organization, which provides ongoing management of the core CMS platform. The company works with an international network of digital agency partners, which has seen more than a million professional websites and digital experiences built on the Umbraco platform since 2005.

The decision to add an Australian hosting option was driven by the growing adoption of Umbraco Cloud in the region, because it allows organizations to spin up new projects, and bring digital experiences to market more quickly, with the benefit of gaining automated upgrades, content synchronization, security updates, access to a content delivery network (CDN), and in-built scalability.

Digital agencies building sites and digital experiences for clients in Australia’s healthcare and financial sectors must ensure that data stays within its jurisdiction. Part IIIA of the Privacy Act places restrictions on holding Australian Credit Reporting System information overseas, while the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Act (PCEHR) 2012, prevents service providers from holding records outside of Australia. By adding an Australian hosting option, these organizations can benefit from the speed, security and scalability of Umbraco Cloud, while meeting legal requirements.

Adam Bateson, USA VP Sales, Umbraco, comments, “After thorough consideration of our partners and clients, it’s evident that there’s significant demand in Australia and New Zealand. We’re excited to introduce the Australian Regional Hosting Option for Umbraco Cloud, enhancing accessibility to our features in the region while ensuring compliance with local data regulations.”

Selecting the option to host Umbraco Cloud projects in Australia is expected to reduce latency and deliver noticeable improvements in performance and response times for developers, content editors and end-users in Australia. Umbraco’s internal testing has shown a 70% improvement in response times for Australian users, compared to the same projects hosted on Umbraco Cloud in the Europe-West region.

Marty Drill, CEO at digital agency, Luminary, which is Umbraco’s first Platinum Partner in Australia comments, “We are thrilled that Umbraco is opening a hosting environment in Australia. It will provide opportunities for speed improvements for existing customers and data sovereignty in Australia for new customers who need it.”

International digital agencies now have the following options when starting new Umbraco Cloud projects:

• East Australia: hosts Umbraco Cloud projects in the Australia East Azure data centre
• East US
• West Europe: hosts Umbraco Cloud projects in the Netherlands, with good connectivity worldwide
• South UK

Hailing the move, Emmanuel Tissera, Technical Director at Luminary, and Umbraco MVP, notes that, “Regional hosting ensures Australian data residency, swift deployments, and seamless management within a cost-effective, auto upgraded and secure PaaS. With cloud-native Umbraco add-ons such as Forms, Deploy, Commerce and Workflow, content editors will be able to utilize multiple self-service options and developers can concentrate on custom functionality for their clients. This marks a major milestone for Luminary, Umbraco and the open-source community in Australia.”