Amazon Web Services has been selected to construct a new cloud platform specifically designed to house top-secret government information.
Amazon Web Services, one of the biggest cloud computing services in the world, has been selected by a government to build a special cloud. The Australian government has tapped Amazon Web Services to enter into a 10-year partnership with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to build a "Top Secret (TS) Cloud for the Australian Government." The Australian government announced it would be spending $2 billion AUD, or $1.35 billion USD, over a 10-year period, and the cloud will be designed to improve the Australian government's ability to share and analyze its most classified data.
The announcement mentioned plans to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning across the cloud and that once the secure cloud is completed, the nation will be able to better connect with other intelligence agencies to share data, specifically the United States. The Register has pointed out some important points about this cloud. First is the lack of details surrounding its construction and ownership, how it's run by Amazon Web Services but also completely secure, and where the cloud will be housed.
Why is this important? As The Register pointed out, this new cloud will be sovereign, meaning it will be constructed somewhere in Australia. However, it will also be interoperable with Five Eyes, an intelligence network between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
As The Register points out, it's extremely important that Amazon Web Services is able to design its secure cloud and maintain its sovereignty while also being connected to other nations-especially considering an entire country's secrets are within the servers.
