US Defence agencies get approval for AWS cloud use
Thu 3 Apr 2014
All four of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) US infrastructure regions, including AWS GovCloud (US), have received a Department of Defense (DoD) provisional authorisation under the DoD Cloud Security Model (CSM) for Impact Levels 1-2. That authorises DoD agencies to use AWS’s infrastructure.
“After receiving an overwhelming response from defense agencies interested in leveraging our Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Authority to Operate (ATO), we’re very excited to further extend our services to the government community by meeting the additional requirements of the DoD,” said Teresa Carlson, vice president worldwide public sector at AWS.
“Today, more than 600 government agencies use AWS services, and we look forward to continuing to demonstrate the security and reliability of the AWS Cloud so that an even broader set of DoD customers can use our services to reduce costs and innovate for their missions.”
The DoD CSM adds defence specific security controls to FedRAMP, which provides a standardised approach to security assessment, authorisation, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services across the federal government.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) assessed AWS’s compliance with those additional security controls and approved AWS cloud computing services, reducing the time necessary for DoD agencies to evaluate and authorise the use of the AWS Cloud.
Some DoD agencies, including the US Department of the Navy and the US Air Force, already use AWS services, but the DoD provisional authorisation makes it even easier for agencies to switch to AWS.
