Amazon Web Services has launched a new cloud-based hosting service that can accommodate government intelligence, files and work product classified as Secret or below.
Called AWS Secret Region, the air-gapped commercial cloud offering is essentially an offshoot of a Top-Secret Region that the Amazon subsidiary was already providing to the CIA and greater intel community since 2014 through a Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract.
This Secret Region does not host Top-Secret documents, but it can store Secret, Sensitive, and Unclassified files. In addition to intelligence agencies, separately contracted non-intelligence U.S. government customers with secret-level data can now also use this service.
“The U.S. intelligence community can now execute their missions with a common set of tools, a constant flow of the latest technology, and the flexibility to rapidly scale with the mission," said Teresa Carlson, vice president of AWS Worldwide Public Sector, in a Nov. 20 AWS press release. "Ultimately, this capability allows more agency collaboration, helps get critical information to decision makers faster, and enables an increase in our nation's security.”
“The AWS Secret Region is a key component of the intel community's multi-fabric cloud strategy. It will have the same material impact... at the Secret level that C2S has had at Top Secret,” said CIA CIO John Edwards, in the release.
