Amazon wins deal with NSA. The U.S. Intelligence Agency will rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure as part of its operations. The details of Amazon’s missions are not public – the deal is concealed. But we know that will be one of its main goals Modernize and manage NSA’s largest classified database, called GovCloud.
The agreement itself is a Call for tenders starting in 2020. At the time, U.S. intelligence officials indicated the intention to establish a partnership with a private cloud provider, with a significant increase in data storage and computing power requirements.
Amazon and NSA will work together
The project is going realistically Migrate particularly sensitive and valuable data outside the walls of the agency, For the first time in its history. Amazon is not the only cloud provider in the race. Microsoft and its Azure cloud platform are hoping to win a huge deal from the intelligence agency.
Slightly bitter about not being selected, Microsoft announced its intention to appeal the decision on July 21, 2021, two weeks after announcing the agency’s decision. The organization explains: Based on the NSA decision, we file a complaint against the government with the Government Accountability Office. We will exercise our legal rights and continue in this direction prudently and responsibly. “
More generally, 17 or more U.S. agencies are more interested in this type of agreement in view of the strong growth in data that needs to be analyzed and their growing demand for computing power. The deal with Amazon is, in fact, the second such deal in the United States. In November 2020, the CIA awarded its C2E contract to 5 companies: AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM.. The originality of the CIA agreement was that five companies would compete for certain positions.
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For vendors like Amazon, this kind of deal is a real blessing. In addition to the immediate consequences, Amazon can expect closer cooperation with the agency, and therefore other agreements with the American intelligence community. Following Microsoft’s complaint, Amazon will decide its fate by October 29, 2021.
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