<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Barb Darrow]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/barbdarrow/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[CIA's secret Amazon cloud ready to roll]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>The Amazon Web Services-based cloud for the CIA is near completion, according to the CIA&#8217;s chief information officer (CIO).</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Doug Wolfe told <a href="http://www.cvent.com/events/cloudera-federal-forum/event-summary-3b53e26c4c5d45e3a3e74ce665a972af.aspx">a Cloudera industry gathering</a> that the agency&#8217;s long-awaited AWS cloud has hit &#8220;final operational capability&#8221;  after 18 months of work,<a href="http://www.enterprisetech.com/2015/02/26/spy-agency-adding-capabilities-to-its-aws-cloud/"> EnterpriseTech reported.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/amazon/">Amazon</a> famously <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/03/19/report-the-cia-and-amazon-are-in-cahoots-over-secret-cloud/">prevailed with its  bid</a> for this CIA cloud contract in late 2012 when it beat out <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/ibm/">IBM</a> even though it bid a higher dollar amount.  This $600 million deal<a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/08/04/why-the-cia-cloud-contract-is-worth-so-much-more-than-600m-the-week-in-cloud/"> was huge for AWS</a>, which wants to show security- and compliance-conscious industries that its public cloud infrastructure can meet their special needs.</p>
<p>Since 2011, Amazon had already fielded <a href="https://gigaom.com/2011/08/16/amazon-targets-u-s-government-with-govcloud/">GovCloud</a>, a separate cloud region that meets special criteria so it can be used by government agencies. The CIA has additional requirements above and beyond that.</p>
<p>Wolfe also said the new cloud would be rolled out across 17 different intelligence agencies (news to me), and that the agency would have Cloudera&#8217;s enterprise data hub, running on the AWS service within months, according to the story.</p>
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