Managed IT and Cyber Security for Sovereign Defence Industry
Your Defence business needs more than a helpdesk.
Calexi provides managed IT, managed cyber security and Microsoft 365 services for Australian sovereign Defence industry businesses. We manage and improve your technology environment so your team can focus on building and delivering capability.
Trusted by businesses across Canberra and Australia
Australian Owned
Veteran Owned
Security Cleared
Microsoft Partner
DISP Ready
Your managed services provider needs to understand Defence industry.
Sovereign Defence industry businesses carry obligations that most commercial organisations never encounter. You hold sensitive customer and program information. Your contracts carry security conditions. Your primes ask questions about how your systems are configured, who can access them and how that access is controlled. A generalist provider can keep your systems running, but it will rarely anticipate any of this.
Calexi builds and manages technology environments with those obligations already in view.
The information you hold changes the requirements.
Design data, program documentation, supplier records and technical correspondence all carry handling expectations that flow down from your Defence customers. Where that information lives, who can reach it and how it moves between your business, your primes and your subcontractors becomes a technology question long before it becomes a compliance question.
Your customers will ask how it is controlled.
Security schedules, supply chain questionnaires and tender responses ask about access control, device management, patching, monitoring and incident reporting. Answering well depends on the state of your environment and on having records that describe it. Both are managed service responsibilities.
Obligations continue after the contract is signed.
DISP responsibilities, Essential Eight targets and customer security conditions are ongoing commitments, not milestones. Systems drift, staff change and software updates alter behaviour. Keeping controls effective is operational work that has to be owned by someone every month.
Related reading: For Calexi’s broader program delivery, engineering and assurance work with Defence, learn more about Calexi’s Defence capability.
Generalist IT support creates risk, cost and distraction.
Most sovereign Defence businesses do not have a technology problem in isolation. They have a provider problem: capable people working on the wrong things, in the wrong order, without a clear view of what the business is actually accountable for.
Your MSP does not understand Defence
You should not need to explain DISP, Essential Eight or Defence customer expectations to your technology provider. Time spent translating requirements is time your business is paying for twice.
Compliance evidence is missing
Security controls are difficult to defend when configurations, decisions and reviews are not documented. The control may be in place, but without records it cannot be shown to a customer, an assessor or a tender panel.
Too many providers are involved
Separate IT, cyber security and compliance providers create gaps and unclear accountability. Each one assumes another is handling the part in between, and the work quietly falls through.
Technology distracts from delivery
Your leadership and engineering teams should not spend their time coordinating ICT suppliers. Every hour spent chasing a provider is an hour not spent on the capability you are contracted to deliver.
Your environment stands still
Resolving tickets is not enough. Your security and technology should improve over time. Without a roadmap, change only happens when a customer asks, an audit lands or something breaks.
Costs keep increasing
Disconnected projects, products and providers make technology spending difficult to control. Licences overlap, tools are bought to solve problems already covered elsewhere, and the total keeps rising without a matching reduction in risk.
One managed services partner for your technology environment.
Calexi combines day-to-day IT support, cyber security, Microsoft 365 management and continuous improvement within one coordinated service. Rather than splitting your environment across an MSP, an MSSP and a compliance consultant, one team holds the service, the security posture and the supporting records.
Service areas included:
Service desk and user support — a single point of contact for your team, with response commitments agreed in the service schedule
Device management — enrolment, configuration, baselines and lifecycle for laptops, desktops and mobiles
Microsoft 365 administration — tenant configuration, licensing, mailboxes, SharePoint and Teams
Identity and access management — accounts, groups, conditional access, multi-factor authentication and joiner, mover, leaver processes
Security monitoring — collection and review of security events, with defined escalation paths
Endpoint security — endpoint protection, hardening baselines and application control
Patching — operating system and application updates on an agreed schedule, with exception handling
Backup oversight — verification that protected data is actually being protected, and that restores work
Privileged access — separation of administrative accounts, approval paths and periodic review
Incident support — containment, coordination and post-incident actions when something goes wrong
Technical documentation — current diagrams, configuration records and standard operating procedures
Compliance evidence — records produced as work is done, not reconstructed later
Improvement planning — a prioritised roadmap reviewed with you on an agreed cycle
Your environment should be better next month than it is today.
Calexi does more than respond to tickets. We maintain a prioritised improvement roadmap that strengthens security, reliability and compliance over time. Each item is sequenced against effort, risk reduction and the commitments your business has made to its customers, so the work that matters most happens first.
Improvements are agreed with you, implemented as part of the service, documented as they are completed and reviewed to confirm they are still working. This is how the environment moves forward without a separate project every time.
Improvement areas
identity security · phishing-resistant MFA · endpoint baselines · application control · patching · Microsoft 365 hardening · privileged access · monitoring · backups · incident readiness · evidence quality · technical documentation · user experience · service resilience
Managed services aligned with Defence industry expectations.
The service is the same discipline you would expect from any capable provider, applied with the requirements of the Defence supply chain already understood.
DISP-aware technology management
Manage and document technology controls relevant to your DISP environment and responsibilities, so the technical side of your obligations is maintained rather than revisited each time it is queried. Related: Defence Industry Security Program services.
Essential Eight improvement
Implement and maintain practical controls aligned with your required maturity target, sequenced so that each mitigation strategy is supportable in your environment. Related: Essential Eight uplift and Essential Eight managed services.
Compliance evidence
Maintain technical records, diagrams, configurations, registers and review evidence as part of normal operations, so the material exists when a customer, assessor or tender asks for it. Related: governance, risk and compliance services.
Secure Microsoft 365
Manage identity, email, collaboration, administration and device access across your Microsoft 365 tenant, including conditional access, administrative separation and the security settings that protect shared program information.
Managed cyber security
Monitor security events, maintain controls and coordinate response activities, with clear escalation paths agreed before they are needed. Related: managed cyber security services.
Business and Industry technology support
Keep users productive and support changes to staff, locations, systems and contracts, from onboarding a new engineer to standing up a second site.
Technology that helps your business deliver.
Focus on capability
Allow engineering, manufacturing and leadership teams to focus on delivery instead of on supplier coordination.
Reduce provider complexity
Work with one accountable managed services provider across IT, security and technical compliance.
Improve security continuously
Reduce risk through planned and ongoing improvement rather than reactive spending after an incident or an audit.
Produce better evidence
Maintain clearer technical documentation for customers, tenders and reviews, generated as the work is done.
Control costs
Prioritise investment, retire duplicated tooling and avoid unplanned project spending.
Support growth
Build a technology environment that supports new staff, contracts, locations and systems as the business scales.
Built for sovereign Defence industry SMEs.
Calexi is best suited to Australian Defence industry organisations that:
- employ approximately 1 to 100 staff
- design, manufacture or support Defence capability
- use Microsoft 365
- require ongoing managed IT services
- need integrated cyber security
- operate under DISP or Defence customer requirements
- need stronger compliance evidence
- do not want to build a large internal ICT team
- want predictable service ownership
- value local Australian support
Larger organisations are welcome to make contact. The service model is built around small and medium sovereign Defence businesses, and that is where it delivers the most value.
Typical customers include Defence manufacturers, electronics and engineering firms, systems engineering and software companies, sensing and communications businesses, research organisations, specialist component suppliers and subcontractors supporting Defence primes.
The Calexi Continuous Improvement Cycle
The Calexi Continuous Improvement Cycle is a simple, repeatable operating model that ensures your technology environment continually evolves alongside your business, emerging cyber threats and Defence industry expectations.
Rather than treating managed services as a reactive helpdesk, every activity contributes to a cycle of continual improvement that strengthens security, improves resilience and supports long-term business success.
Our Philosophy
Technology is never finished. Threats evolve, business priorities change and compliance expectations continue to grow. The Calexi Continuous Improvement Cycle ensures your technology evolves with them, delivering practical improvements that strengthen security, support business growth and provide confidence that your environment remains fit for purpose.
Not a traditional MSP.
The difference is not effort. It is scope, sequence and what the provider considers to be its responsibility.
| Traditional MSP | Calexi |
| Resolves support tickets | Manages support and continuous improvement |
| Treats security as an add-on | Integrates security into managed services |
| Has limited Defence knowledge | Understands and is part of sovereign Defence industry |
| Implements changes | Implements, documents and maintains controls |
| Refers compliance work elsewhere | Connects technical delivery with evidence |
| Uses separate projects for improvement | Maintains an ongoing improvement roadmap |
| Manages systems | Supports business, security and contract outcomes |
Delivery experience in the Defence environment
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DISP – Defence Industry Security Program Uplift
A Defence SME needed DISP compliance but faced limited resources and low security maturity. Calexi delivered a full uplift within 6 months, achieving Maturity Level 2, Defence approval, and cost savings all while improving security culture and posture.
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SME Essential Eight Compliance
A Defence industry SME required Essential Eight compliance to execute a Defence contract. Calexi delivered a full uplift in just four weeks, achieving ML1 across all areas, ML3 in key controls, and DISP membership within 3 months — reducing risk from very high to low/medium.
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Defence Capability Review
Calexi completed a Defence cyber capability review in just six weeks, engaging hundreds of stakeholders to provide clear visibility of the current state, align future technologies with strategy, and deliver actionable, risk-based recommendations with strong buy-in.
Why Calexi for Defence
We understand that Defence work requires more than technical expertise. It requires discretion, structure, and the ability to operate within strict regulatory, cultural and mission constraints.
Calexi is veteran-owned, ACT-based, and led by professionals who have delivered into Defence for over a decade. Our consultants hold current security clearances and have hands-on experience delivering secure ICT, cyber and engineering solutions across Defence, national security and critical infrastructure sectors.
We don’t just understand complexity. We reduce it, translate it and deliver through it.
FAQ
Calexi can replace an existing provider or work through a structured transition. Responsibilities, access, systems and documentation are clearly transferred so nothing is left unowned during the handover.
Yes. Managed IT and managed cyber security are delivered through one coordinated service, with a single point of accountability rather than two providers negotiating the boundary between them.
Calexi can support the technical implementation, management and documentation of controls relevant to your DISP environment. Calexi does not approve DISP membership. Membership decisions rest with the Defence Industry Security Office.
Calexi can assess, implement, document and maintain Essential Eight controls, either as an uplift project or as part of an ongoing managed service. See Essential Eight services.
Yes. The service model is designed for small and medium businesses that may not have dedicated internal ICT or cyber security teams.
Yes. Calexi can manage identity, email, collaboration, security controls, administration and device access across your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Calexi uses prioritised improvement planning, clear service boundaries and existing technology where appropriate. The goal is to reduce duplicated services, unnecessary products and unpredictable project work.
Yes, where responsibilities are clear. Calexi can implement and maintain technical controls while your consultant retains responsibility for its agreed advisory scope.
No. Calexi supports implementation, evidence and ongoing management. Formal acceptance remains with the relevant customer, assessor or authority.