Amazon Web Services launches second GovCloud Region in the United States
Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region, its second GovCloud infrastructure region in the United States. With the launch of the AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region, AWS now provides 57 Availability Zones across 19 geographic regions globally with another 12 Availability Zones and four regions coming online in Bahrain, Hong Kong SAR, South Africa, and Sweden between the end of 2018 and the first half of 2020.
The AWS GovCloud Regions meet the requirements of the public sector and regulated industries, including being operated on US soil by US citizens, and are accessible only to vetted US entities and root account holders who must confirm they are US persons.
“For more than seven years, government customers and those in highly regulated industries have been using AWS GovCloud (US-West) to run workloads that must meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements,” said Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector at AWS. “Based on the growth of GovCloud (US-West) and high customer demand for a second region in the eastern part of the US, we’ve opened a second GovCloud Region so that AWS customers can support their mission-critical programs with even lower latency to the East Coast and have the ability to implement cross-region disaster recovery.”
AWS was the first cloud provider to launch an isolated infrastructure region designed to meet government and other regulated industry requirements when it opened the AWS GovCloud (US-West) Region in 2011. Like AWS GovCloud (US-West), AWS GovCloud (US-East) offers three Availability Zones. AWS Regions are comprised of multiple Availability Zones, which refer to technology infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to reduce the risk of a single event impacting business continuity, yet near enough to provide low-latency for high availability applications.
Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, physical security, and is connected via redundant, ultra-low-latency networks. AWS customers focused on availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault tolerance.
AWS GovCloud helps customers address compliance at every stage of their cloud journey, supporting more certifications, attestations, laws, regulations, and security frameworks than any other cloud provider, as well as offering more services covered by those compliance regimes.
Similar to AWS GovCloud (US-West), the new AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region is isolated and meets the top US government compliance requirements, including: Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate and High baselines, US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Low, Moderate, and High baselines, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy, Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Levels 2, 4, and 5.
The AWS GovCloud Regions also conform to commercial security and privacy standards such as Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Standards, Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security, System and Organization Controls (SOC) 1, 2, and 3, as well as ISO/IEC 9001 compliance which is primarily for healthcare, life sciences, medical devices, automotive, and aerospace customers.
Customers and APN Partners welcome new AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region
AWS customers can now enjoy the second AWS GovCloud Region in the eastern part of the United States for reduced latency, added redundancy, data durability, resiliency, greater disaster recovery capability, and the ability to scale across multiple regions.
United States government agencies, and the IT contractors that serve them, were early adopters of AWS GovCloud (US-West) while US public sector and commercial customers in regulated industries such as education, financial services, and healthcare also use AWS GovCloud.
Government agencies like the US Department of Treasury, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and many others use AWS GovCloud for their applications and workloads. Companies like Adobe, Blackboard, Booz Allen Hamilton, Drakontas, Druva, ECS, Enlighten IT, General Dynamics Information Technology, GE, Infor, JHC Technology, Leidos, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Novetta, PowerDMS, Raytheon, REAN Cloud, a Hitachi Vantara company, SAP NS2, and Smartronix are among AWS GovCloud customers that rely on the compliance standards and security that AWS GovCloud can provide.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for providing services like healthcare to America’s veterans and enjoys the flexibility and cost savings of AWS to better serve US military Veterans.
“At the US Department of Veterans Affairs, we’ve seen firsthand the cost savings, flexibility, and ‘doorway to innovation’ that the cloud provides,” said Dave Cantanoso, Director of Enterprise Cloud Solutions at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. “Through the agency’s use of commercial cloud, we’ve been able to provide a more streamlined experience for our nation’s Veterans, giving them faster, easier access to benefits, healthcare, and other essential services through Vets.gov. We’re excited to take advantage of the new AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region to continue optimizing that online experience.”
Raytheon is using AWS GovCloud to comply with a range of government regulations, and by using AWS they have been able to reduce the time to build, test, and scale software from weeks to hours.
“Working with AWS has allowed us to unlock new opportunities and deliver more capability, services, and innovation to our global customers,” said John DeSimone, Vice President of Cybersecurity at Raytheon IIS. “With a new AWS GovCloud Region in the eastern part of the United States, we are able to leverage the security and flexibility that only AWS GovCloud provides to bring operational value for our mission partners with even lower latency.”
Across the United States, state and local governments, including law enforcement, have been using AWS GovCloud to store their data in a cost effective way. In Indiana, the State Police Department relies on AWS GovCloud to innovate and advance law enforcement through technology, while securely storing data that is CJIS compliant.
“The use of technology and data is becoming increasingly important to law enforcement,” said Major Mike White, Assistant Chief of Staff with the Indiana State Police Department. “With advancements, come the need for secure connectivity and storage without draining the budget. Storage for databases, reports, and video are part of today’s challenges for law enforcement technology managers. AWS is quickly becoming a go-to solution for technology needs that won’t break the bank.”
Drakontas provides products for law enforcement, criminal justice, infrastructure protection, transportation, and military communities. Its DragonForce software, which combines multiple planning tools to deliver real-time information to commanders and field members, is built entirely on AWS.
“The new AWS GovCloud bolsters the geo-redundant offering of DragonForce for our customers who have the most demanding mission critical requirements,” said James Sim, President and Chief Operating Officer at Drakontas. “DragonForce users including York County, Pennsylvania’s Quick Response Team, the Monmouth County, New Jersey Emergency Response Team, and the Gwinnett County, Georgia SWAT will all benefit from the reduced latency and increased reliability that we’ll be able to provide by leveraging this new AWS GovCloud Region.”
PowerDMS allows organizations in public safety, law enforcement, government, healthcare, and other industries to share crucial content, and recently migrated its production network and system components to AWS GovCloud.
“As a technology service provider for the public safety market, we know that when our customers are responding to life-saving situations every second counts,” said Heath Hensley, Chief Technology Officer, PowerDMS. “Our customers are located throughout the US and it’s important that our data centers are strategically placed to ensure the lowest latency possible. The addition of AWS GovCloud (US-East) not only allows us to reduce latency for our East Coast customers but also increase redundancy so that all customers can access crucial content the second they need it.”