Nutanix, the hybrid multicloud computing company, has announced its support and partnership with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to digitise its collection of Indigenous Australian artefacts and cultural archive collection.

The AIATSIS has amassed and cared for a unique collection that contributes to building understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ cultures and heritage.

Some of the materials included in the collection are academic research materials by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge keepers, artists, filmmakers, storytellers, and writers. It also includes important related works by non-Indigenous people.

“Creating opportunities for people to encounter, engage and be transformed by our First Nations peoples is a vastly different challenge in today’s digital society compared with our founding more than 50 years ago,” says Syed Jaffary, Deputy CIO, AIATSIS.

“Timely, digitised access to the resources in the AIATSIS collection makes it easier for First Nations communities to access that material and helps in bringing knowledge of the planet’s oldest living cultures before a much wider audience. It all comes down to the power within our IT environment.”

AIATSIS’s collection contains more than 1 million examples of such materials, so the process of digitising them was not a small task. However, AIATSIS recognised the importance and need for a more sophisticated way to manage such an extensive collection of data, especially when considering the need to generate it at remote locations.

Nutanix’s AHV and Kubernetes Engine were core to the institute’s transformation, as their implementation allowed the creation of a powerful IT layer that extends the performance of AIATSIS’s core data centre to remote edge locations.

This IT layer enables large data sets to be analysed quicker and more accurately. It also means that the critical IT infrastructure underpinning the project can be managed remotely from AIATSIS’ headquarters in Canberra.

Through this, applications and artefacts can be inducted in minutes, as opposed to days or weeks, through its Content Management System.

An essential hand in enabling the deployment of the IT architecture for central and edge applications was Canberra-based Nutanix partner Qirx.

Working with Qirx also helped AIATSIS simplify its infrastructure management and reduce operational overheads.

With these efficiency improvements, the government agency has been able to dedicate more resources toward implementing innovative technologies across its operations.

“Preserving more than 65,000 years of Indigenous history ensures we can celebrate the traditional owners of this land long into the future,” says Jim Steed, Managing Director ANZ, Nutanix.

“By digitising its vast collection, AIATSIS is making these unique cultural artefacts accessible to schools and communities across Australia. This is vital as future generations can learn from those who first made this land their home.”

This news comes after Nutanix was recently named a ‘Champion’ Vendor by IT market analyst firm Canalys.