Amazon.com has received a security clearance by the U.S.
government that will make it easier for federal agencies to
use its cloud computing services.
Amazon.com's AWS GovCloud (U.S.) and all U.S. AWS Regions
have received an Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
requirements at the Moderate impact level.
FedRAMP is a U.S. government-wide program that provides a
standardized approach to security assessment, authorization,
and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.
The accreditation covers all AWS data centers in the United
States, the company said on Tuesday.
AWS said it received its three-year clearance through the
Department of Health and Human Services. The certification
covers this agency and all its operational divisions which
include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes
of Health.
"Today most government computing systems require
built-to-order platforms and applications to meet government
security and compliance requirements, which involve
time-consuming and costly evaluations. With this FedRAMP
compliance, agencies can now utilize a streamlined process
from AWS when moving applications to the cloud to meet their
unique business and mission requirements."
With today's announcement, all agencies have an efficient
way to run their FedRAMP required workloads on AWS. Agencies
can immediately request access to the AWS FedRAMP package by
submitting a FedRAMP Package Access Request Form and begin
moving through the authorization process to achieve an ATO
using AWS.