The CIA has reportedly signed a massive cloud-computing deal with Amazon, worth up to $US600 million over the next 10 years. FCW reports that its sources have told it Amazon will build a private cloud infrastructure for the CIA, to help it “keep up with emerging technologies like big data in a cost-effective manner not possible under the CIA’s previous cloud efforts”.
Both Amazon and the CIA have declined to comment on the matter, according to FCW. However, the CIA’s Central Intelligence Agency Chief Information Officer, Jeanne Tisinger, recently told an audience at the Northern Virginia Technology Council that the agency was hoping to leverage the commercial sector’s innovation cycle.
With the CIA’s current cloud computing infrastructure built on “smaller, highly specific private clouds,” according to FCW, it sounds like the agency could be taking a bold step. Hope it’s secure! [FCW]