Up to 98 new IT jobs could be created in the Illawarra region of New South Wales following CSC Australia’s $2.76 million government funding grant to create two centres of excellence within its Illawarra Technology Park campus.
The centres will include security operations to monitor and respond to local, regional and global network threats as well as cloud /IT services for Australian and global customers. CSC was awarded the Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund (IRIF) by the Federal and NSW state governments.
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A CSC Australia spokeswoman told Computerworld Australia that under the grant, the centres will be constructed and open for business within the next two years.
Roles that will be sought range from project managers, technical architects, security operations specialists, cloud engineers through to cloud architects.
"We will be hiring candidates through our normal recruitment process which is open to both domestic and international candidates," she said. "We also see significant benefits in working with the University of Wollongong to source these high end skills into the future."
The fund was established by the two governments--along with BlueScope Steel-- to strengthen the region by stimulating investment and diversifying the Illawarra's economic and employment base.
According to Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation Greg Combet, 25 businesses are being offered IRIFF grants worth a total of $17.2 million.
Some of these companies include National Biodiesel which has been awarded a $2.86 million grant for an infrastructure project expected to create 52 new jobs while mining manufacturer Alminco has received a grant of $653,719 for the $1.3 million expansion of one of its Fairy Meadow facilities.
CSC is not the only vendor who has considered cyber security centre investment in Australia. Huawei Australia chairman John Lord recently said that a national cyber security centre should be built to test technologies for infrastructure projects, such as the National Broadband Network (NBN).
The company's proposal is in response to a recent US congressional report that issued a warning about potential backdoors that could be exploited by Chinese state agencies and the ban on Huawei participation in construction of the NBN.
In a speech to the National Press Club on October 24, Lord said developing effective cyber security frameworks is not just a challenge for Huawei and it should be approached collaboratively.
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