Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Amazon Cloud Wins Approval from Feds

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Amazon Web Services has announced that it has received certification from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). That makes it much easier for federal agencies to use the company’s cloud computing services.

The Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reported, “Amazon announced Monday that its Amazon Web Services cloud can now be used for government business, having received a nod from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. FedRAMP’s assessment means that separate agencies do not have to run their own checks of the same cloud framework. The three-year certification lets Amazon boast that its security and other systems are reliable enough to allow the company’s cloud to store sensitive but unclassified government data.”

Reuters quoted Amazon’s Teresa Carlson, who said, “This will cut the cost and time for agencies to deploy our systems. It cuts costs for AWS too.”

InformationWeek’s John Foley noted, “Amazon launched a version of its cloud services for government agencies, called GovCloud, in 2011. It’s one of nine AWS regions, or “availability zones.” GovCloud meets the requirements of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which govern the export and import of defense-related information and services. In keeping with those rules, GovCloud servers are housed in the U.S. and can only be accessed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.”

PCMag’s Stephanie Mlot added, “Currently, four AWS services are covered by the ATOs [authority to operate certifications], including Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and Elastic Block Store (EBS). Amazon Web Services plans to add other services in the future.”

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