Amazon and the Central Intelligence Agency have entered a multi-year deal in which Amazon will build a proprietary cloud system for the agency, according to sources.
The deal for the secured, private cloud infrastructure for the CIA will cost the government more than $600 million over the next decade, Gizmodo reports.
Neither Amazon nor the CIA has confirmed the deal. However, the CIA's Chief Information Officer Jeanne Tisinger has told an audience at the Northern Virginia Technology Council that the agency was hoping to leverage the commercial sector's innovation cycle, which could be a hint at the Amazon deal.
Amazon's cloud system would help the CIA "keep up with emerging technologies like big data in a cost-effective manner not possible under the CIA's previous cloud efforts," FCW reports.
The CIA-Amazon deal is viewed as a "game-changer" in federal IT circles, because it "would show the CIA is acting intelligently with regards to emerging technologies and tightening budgets," FCW adds.
Dave Powner, director of IT management issues at the Government Accountability Office, didn't acknowledge the deal but stated it would make sense, as federal budgets are reduced.
"I'm not aware of that contract but I think in times of reducing budget situations you would expect to see agencies that haven't considered cloud solutions extensively in the past would be looking more and more of doing something along those lines," Powner said.
The CIA's cloud computing strategy focused on smaller, specific private clouds. The Amazon contract brings a public cloud computing system inside the secure firewalls of the intelligence community — meaning classified data would be secured.
CIA Chief Technology Officer Gus Hunt has alluded to Amazon in the past in regard to the agency's software purchasing. Hunt was quoted by Reuters as saying, "Think Amazon — that model really works," FCW reported.
