Cloud Computing Battle

Amazon is now providing services to the CIA or Central Intelligence Agency. Amazingly, they beat out IBM for the job and landed a multimillion dollar deal. Amazon is using cloud computing to accomplish the goal. This deal was solidified in mid-March and was announced in a publication called FCW. The decade-long deal was finalized after IBM launched a formal protest over the pact.

The Importance of the Amazon-CIA Deal

The Amazon-CIA deal was one of the biggest deals recently on the web. This is a big accomplishment for Amazon given that IBM has dominated this field. The CIA chose Amazon because of their superior technical solution. This is a major shift in the industry because if Amazon successfully completes this project, they will have the CIA as a reference. The encryption technology has to be exceptional to ensure that the CIA’s proprietary information is kept secure.

Cloud computing has evolved and old companies like IBM and HP were threatened by trying new ways. Amazon and Google are willing to try new and innovative ways of configuring the cloud. The CIA chose Amazon because they were more progressive in terms of security and privacy. Amazon was able to refute the claims provided by IBM about the notion of the private cloud.

Amazon offers cloud services known as GovCloud and FinQloud, which are community clouds. An adaptation of these services is what the CIA can expect to receive from Amazon. Expanding to the CIA is a feat for Amazon, but providing these types of cloud services and agreeing to build a private cloud for the CIA helped Amazon beat Big Blue and land the contract for the CIA.

How Amazon Convinced CIA to Select Them Over the Competition

Amazon was willing to address some of the concerns that the CIA had about the public cloud. Privacy and security, obviously, are a major concern for the CIA. Recently, the NSA was able to siphon data off of the public web services. With this action, the concerns of online security and privacy increased. When Amazon expressed their willingness to work with the CIA, they were more convinced that Amazon will be able to address their needs.

How Amazon Beat Big Blue

Some would argue that Amazon was only after the money with the CIA. This may be true, but they also have to deliver given that the contract worth $600 million was awarded to Amazon for the next ten years instead of IBM. This win was just what Amazon and their supporters needed to validate their support. Personally, I believe that Amazon winning that bid was more due, in part, to it’s status in the public cloud computing realm. For instance, if you look at niche marketing and what it entails. You can see some similarities between Amazon landing the CIA and how niche marketers market their products. In some cases, you can see that what started out as a niche business or product quickly dominated the market and the companies that owned these services and products slowly go from being big fish in a small pond to big enough to fight off bigger fish in a bigger pond. Amazon landed the CIA, that’s a growing fish not playing in a big fish world.

About Author: When Daniel isn’t trying to resolve server or cloud computing issues for his customers, you can find him at home building computers. He enjoys what he does and it all started with his desire to work with computer PCs.