Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of its second cloud computing region tailored for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, named AWS Secret-West. This new region is designed to handle classified workloads up to the “secret” level, offering enhanced performance, availability, and resiliency for mission-critical applications, including artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing tasks.
AWS Secret-West complements the existing AWS Secret-East region, providing a geographically diverse infrastructure that allows for multi-region architectures. This setup ensures higher levels of resiliency and availability, essential for critical national security missions. The exact location of AWS Secret-West has not been disclosed, but it is situated over 1,000 miles from AWS Secret-East, which is located in northern Virginia.
The introduction of AWS Secret-West is part of AWS’s ongoing commitment to support the U.S. government’s modernization efforts. By offering a second region for secret-level workloads, AWS enables defense and intelligence agencies to deploy applications closer to their end-users, reducing latency and improving overall performance.
This development builds upon AWS’s history of serving the U.S. intelligence community. In 2013, AWS secured a $600 million contract with the CIA to provide cloud services for classified data. Since then, AWS has continued to expand its offerings, including the AWS Top Secret-East region launched in 2014 and the AWS Top Secret-West region announced in 2021.
The launch of AWS Secret-West aligns with the broader trend of government agencies adopting commercial cloud services to enhance their capabilities. By leveraging AWS’s secure and scalable infrastructure, agencies can more effectively manage and analyze large volumes of data, supporting a range of operations from intelligence analysis to mission planning.
As AWS continues to innovate and expand its cloud services, the addition of AWS Secret-West represents a significant step in providing the U.S. government with the tools necessary to meet the evolving demands of national security and defense.