Snowflake Completes NZISM Restricted Assessment on Amazon Web Services

Snowflake is proud to announce that it has completed an independent third-party assessment against the New Zealand Information Security Manual (NZISM) for its deployment in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Auckland region, confirming alignment with the New Zealand government’s Restricted level control requirements. 

For New Zealand government agencies, unlocking the full value of data is essential to improve service delivery, strengthen security controls and enable faster, better-informed decision-making. As agencies modernize legacy environments and manage growing volumes of sensitive information, they need a platform that supports secure analytics, governed collaboration and operational scale.

With the completion of this NZISM assessment, Snowflake is better positioned to support agencies that require services aligned with the New Zealand government’s Restricted security requirements. The assessment, conducted by an independent third-party assurance provider experienced in conducting assessments in the region, evaluated Snowflake’s controls against identified requirements in the NZISM.

The NZISM assessment streamlines the procurement and deployment process for government customers. Under the Protective Security Requirements (PSR), agencies must complete their own certification and accreditation (C&A) process before granting an authority to operate (ATO). By providing a verified, independent assessment of Snowflake’s platform-level controls, agencies avoid the time-consuming effort of conducting full-stack infrastructure audits. Agency CISOs and lead assessors can confidently leverage Snowflake’s assessment artifacts, including control mappings and risk documentation, to focus on their own configurations and integrations. This vastly accelerates the C&A timeline, allowing accreditation authorities to issue ATOs faster and with greater confidence in the management of residual risk.

What this means for agencies

This milestone builds on Snowflake’s existing support for public sector workloads in New Zealand. With Snowflake on AWS assessed at the Restricted level, agencies can use the platform to support a wide range of AI and data workload needs, including:

• Unifying fragmented data across systems to create a more complete operational picture for analysis and reporting

• Enabling secure data sharing and collaboration without unnecessary data movement or duplication

• Improving decision-making with trusted, timely insights drawn from governed data

• Supporting AI and advanced analytics on a secure and compliance-supporting data foundation

• Scaling efficiently with the elasticity and performance needed for modern public sector workloads

Designed for secure government innovation

Snowflake’s platform is designed to help organizations mobilize their data with robust security, governance and interoperability capabilities across environments. Snowflake enables customers to unify siloed data, securely share governed data and support diverse analytical workloads from a single platform experience across clouds and geographies.

For government customers, that means agencies can build on a platform that supports both immediate operational priorities and longer-term digital transformation goals. By combining secure data access with modern collaboration and analytics capabilities, Snowflake helps public sector teams turn sensitive data into practical outcomes.

A continued investment in AI trust and compliance

Completing the NZISM assessment at the Restricted level underscores Snowflake’s ongoing commitment to security and to supporting public sector customers with the controls and assurance they require. It also builds on Snowflake’s broader compliance posture, which includes globally recognized certifications and attestations such as SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS and, in select deployments, IRAP and FedRAMP.

As government agencies increasingly use AI to enhance decision-making and service delivery, maintaining public trust and data integrity is paramount. Snowflake’s compliance framework also includes certification to the ISO 42001 standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems, enabling agencies to confidently leverage AI innovations on our platform, knowing these capabilities are backed by recognized standards for AI safety, fairness and accountability.

“Completing the NZISM Restricted assessment is a critical milestone for our New Zealand public sector customers. Agencies no longer need to choose between onshore data security and innovation. Snowflake is providing a secure foundation needed to unify fragmented data, deploy enterprise-ready AI and improve decision-making with confidence." —Glenn Powell, Industry Principal, Global Public Sector, Snowflake

Getting started

Snowflake helps public sector organizations securely unify, integrate, analyze and share data on a platform designed for scale, governance and collaboration. To learn more about Snowflake’s security and compliance program, visit the Snowflake Security Hub.