AWS Introduces Secret Cloud for Classified Workloads in Defense Sector
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled the AWS Secret Cloud for Industry (ASCI), a groundbreaking cloud service tailored for contractor-owned classified workloads. This offering marks a significant shift for the defense industrial base and select research institutions, which have traditionally relied on expensive on-premises infrastructure to support classified programs. According to Dave Levy, AWS's vice president of Public Sector, ASCI aims to cut the time needed to provision classified environments from months to just days, enhancing the operational efficiency of cleared U.S. defense contractors and organizations within the National Industrial Security Program.
Levy emphasized the importance of equipping America's defense industrial base with modern tools, stating, "AWS Secret Cloud for Industry puts the full power of cloud computing and AI directly into the hands of the engineers and scientists working on our most sensitive programs." The cloud service has achieved provisional authorization at Impact Level 6 (IL6), which is the standard for handling Secret-classified information, and it adheres to the compliance framework established by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA).
Northrop Grumman has become the first defense contractor to utilize ASCI for its classified workloads, which would have otherwise taken months to deploy. Drew Barnes, vice president of IT infrastructure and operations at Northrop Grumman, remarked that migrating to AWS's Secret Cloud fundamentally transforms their approach to developing sensitive programs.
In a press call prior to the AWS Summit in Washington, D.C., Levy noted the long-standing demand for such a solution, crediting the Defense Information Systems Agency and DCSA for their collaboration in this initiative. During the summit, Levy also announced the ASCI Accelerator Initiative, which will provide up to $20 million to qualified defense contractors and research organizations to facilitate the migration of classified workloads to the cloud.
This announcement follows AWS's previous commitment of $50 billion to enhance AI and supercomputing infrastructure for U.S. federal agencies. Levy stated that this investment aims to deliver 1.3 gigawatts of AI capacity, reinforcing AWS's commitment to secure and intelligent cloud solutions for government operations.
AWS has a history of supporting government clients, having launched AWS GovCloud (US-West) in 2011, which allowed federal agencies to transition workloads to the cloud. The company also secured a $600 million contract with the CIA in 2013 to provide cloud services to all 18 intelligence agencies. Since then, AWS has expanded its offerings, including multiple secret and top-secret cloud regions, and has been awarded significant contracts from various government entities.
In addition to the ASCI launch, AWS announced a $1 billion investment in cloud credits for the U.S. intelligence community to assist in modernizing IT systems through the Intelligence Community Accelerated Modernization Framework (ICAMF). This initiative aims to lower financial barriers for agencies looking to migrate to the cloud, thereby accelerating modernization efforts and enhancing mission-critical capabilities.
