By Barb Darrow
Now here’s a story that will probably never get confirmed: Federal Computer Week is reporting that the Central Intelligence Agency has contracted cloud kingpin Amazon Web Services to build a cloud for the super secret spy agency.
The report, as you might expect, doesn’t name its sources, but contends that Amazon will help build private cloud infrastructure that will enable the CIA to “keep up with emerging technologies like big data in a cost-effective manner not possible under the CIA’s previous cloud efforts.” The contract is for up to $600 million over the next 10 years, according to FCW, which said neither Amazon nor the CIA would comment.
A CIA spokesman, as expected, declined comment saying: “As a general rule, the CIA does not publicly disclose details of our contracts, the identities of our contractors, the contract values, or the scope of work.”
Here’s the thing though. A collaboration like this makes sense for the CIA, given the U.S. government’s big “cloud first” initiative, which holds that the use of cloud computing technologies will save money and make government more responsive and flexible to its constituencies. And it would give Amazon a test bed to show — at least within the tight-lipped intelligence community — that it can build mission-critical and super secure private clouds for their use.
Amazon, as well as some legacy IT players, has struggled on that whole private cloud front. Amazon Web Services launched Virtual Private Cloud capabilities four years ago and last week said it is broadening their use. It also hosts GovCloud, which is cordoned off from the rest of AWS, for government accounts.
Source: Washington Post
