U.S. Intelligence Community gets its own AWS Cloud — Private, Of course Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), today announced that it now manages a private cloud for U.S. Intelligence Community. AWS spokesperson Jeff Barr stated that the AWS Marketplace was created to meet the unique needs of this community. The new marketplace, which is similar to the existing AWS Marketplace makes it easy for users to find, buy, and install software packages and applications. It focuses on products in Big Data, Analytics and Cloud Transition Support. Kate Miller, APN Partner Network blog author, stated that potential sellers must follow several steps in order to be able to sell on the new marketplace.

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  • Your products must be listed on the AWS Marketplace.
  • You will need to submit a separate U.S. Intelligence Foreign Ownship Control and Influence adjudication package.
  • Make sure your products are compatible with the Commercial Cloud Services (C2S space). This means that your products cannot make calls to the public internet and will not attempt to access external resources.

Another blog post, this time on the public sector site, stated that the AWS Marketplace adds value to government agencies via the following:

  • Selection: Authorized Resellers or Independent Software Vendors are allowed to list within government restrictions. This allows our government customers to search, purchase, and deploy software using either hourly utility computing, or annual subscriptions. (See below for steps to access products in the AWS Marketplace U.S. IC).
  • Fast procurement: Only purchase what you need with pay-as–you-go pricing
  • Easy deployment: Customers are able to launch products easily using the AWS One Click deployment feature within AmazonElastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) console. They can also test and evaluate software easily.

Barr stated that selling directly to the Intelligence Community could be a burdensome process that limits the Intelligence Community’s options for purchasing software. “Our goal is for the Intelligence Community to have as many software options as possible. We are working to assist our AWS Marketplace sellers in the onboarding process so that they can benefit from the software. Barr stated that potential sellers can turn to AWS for advice and help after they have completed step one, which is having a product listed on the regular AWS Marketplace. AWS can be contacted by sellers via email. Barr stated that AWS will assist with security and paperwork and will do their best to get you moving as quickly as possible.