Amazon Scores $600M Cloud Deal With CIA

by Christopher Freeburn | March 20, 2013 10:20 am

amazon box 630[1]Amazon‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN[2]) web services business has landed a contract to provide cloud computing services[3] to the nation’s top spy agency.

Unnamed sources tell FCW that, under the 10-year deal worth about $600 million, the Internet retail giant will develop cloud systems to manage large amounts of data for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

With budget cuts looming in Washington, D.C., the CIA has been looking to streamline its IT systems and seek a competitive advantage in service agreements with tech providers. Amazon’s name had been mentioned by CIA officials at various events over the past several months.

The CIA is likely looking to create a public cloud that is protected by its own firewalls and Internet defenses in order to reduce the potential for unauthorized access.

Both the CIA and Amazon declined comment to FCW on the report.

Amazon’s recent bid to obtain several book-related domain names from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has provoked intense criticism from a number of publishing groups[4].

Shares of Amazon rose fractionally in Wednesday morning trading.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/amazon-box-630.jpg
  2. AMZN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AMZN
  3. landed a contract to provide cloud computing services: http://fcw.com/Articles/2013/03/18/amazon-cia-cloud.aspx?Page=1
  4. provoked intense criticism from a number of publishing groups: https://investorplace.com/2013/03/amazon-faces-opposition-over-bid-to-grab-web-names/

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/03/amazon-scores-600m-cloud-deal-with-cia/