Amazon Web Services has been granted provisional authorization to host Level 5 data for the US Department of Defense (DoD).
With the approval, the tech giant’s cloud computing arm – which is one of the company’s most profitable divisions – will be able to host the most sensitive data pertaining to the Pentagon, military, NSA, and other security agencies.
Amazon will be the third company to receive this authorization, following Microsoft and IBM.
Amazon Web Services has been granted provisional authorization to host Level 5 data for the US Department of Defense. Now the tech giant’s cloud computing arm will be able to host the most sensitive data pertaining to the Pentagon, military, NSA, and other security agencies
‘This further bolsters AWS (Amazon Web Services) as an industry leader in helping support the DoD’s critical mission in protecting our security,’ Amazon wrote in a blog post announcing the provisional authorization.
The DoD, a department of the US executive branch that oversees national security agencies and the armed forces, already hosts data on AWS.
This includes workloads containing sensitive Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), National Security Systems (NSS), and the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX), a critical navigation information system that supports global cyber protection and analysis of satellite data.
Even prior to this, Amazon is the favored cloud service provider among the intelligence community and hosts classified data for 17 agencies, including a $600 million contract with the CIA.
AWS already boasts security technology including encryption and access control features that exceed the DoD’s security requirements, and not now it’s believed the cloud-computing firm can handle larger-scale sensitive work loads and meet the DoD’s CC SRG IL5 requirements.
Even prior to this, Amazon is the favored cloud service provider among the intelligence community and hosts classified data for 17 agencies, including a $600 million contract with the CIA
‘The AWS GovCloud (US) Region is composed of multiple data centers that can handle the scale of high capacity, mission-critical workloads, including High Performance Compute, Big Data, or ERP workloads,’ Amazon says.
The military has also had a positive experience with AWS, with Amazon saying it has brought a ‘cultural shift’ in the Air Force.
‘We deployed our first ever national security system, or Impact Level 5, to AWS GovCloud,’ said Chris Lynch, Director of the DDS.
‘We are working on automatic builds and deployment.’
‘But the real impact is that when we are done, we are going to take something that took three weeks down to 15 minutes.’
AWS is the only cloud provider able to meet the IL5 security requirements and scale of the US Air Force’s GPS OCX program, the firm says.
AWS already boasts security technology including encryption and access control features that exceed the DoD’s security requirements, and not now it’s believed the cloud-computing firm can handle larger-scale sensitive work loads and meet the DoD’s CC SRG IL5 requirements
More than 200 Dedicated Hosts running more than 1,000 virtual Machines (each of which requires at least eight vCPUs and 32GB RAM) are needed for it.
‘When the Air Force looked at other cloud providers, none of them were able to immediately handle the compute scale while also meeting the DoD CC SRG IL5 requirements,’ Amazon said.
‘Not only did AWS meet the Air Force’s needs, but the Air Force also experienced a 30 percent cost savings for storage cost.’
At the 2016 AWS re:Invent conference, Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves also praised the cloud computing branch.
He spoke to how a partnership between it and the Defense Digital Services (DDS) is ‘breaking down barriers.’
AWS revenues totaled $4.1 billion last quarter, marking 42 percent year-over-year and growth.