Uncle Sam █████████ cloud so much, AWS █████████ it another kinda-secret data center Amazon Web Services says it will launch a second dedicated cloud compute facility for the US government early next year. The more profitable part of Amazon's empire said the facility will serve government agencies and the contractors who work with them as a US East regional instance. It will go live in 2018 and, like its …
First rule: If you want to analyse data, you build the datacentre right next to the source of the data you want to analyse.
You'd think Uncle Sam had enough spare capacity in Facebook's "second datacentre" in Lulea, Sweden. It's always best to hide datacentres in plain sight, to avoid suspicion. ;)
I mean, just copy-pasting reveals the text, how lamer can you possibly get*?
More seriously, it does raise concerns. The AWS space will probably only be used only for the most mundane content, or for deliberate misinformation, and Amazon is probably only advertising this after a comprehensive review with US.gov. Governments around the globe are notoriously shy about using third-party IT solutions, especially when it comes to data. And rightly so. So this is either an attempt to lure foreign govs into giving away their sensitive data to the US (because what more proof could you possibly need that Amazon is cuddly with US.gov?), or a lure for particularly stupid "nation-state" hackers (either as a way to spread misinformation, or as a way to identify wannabe spooks at little risk).
Or all of the above, of course.
*besides trying that based on a random comment, that is
So couldn't they just pitch for bringing it all onsite, and with a slightly modified layout, go for the Heptagon. That'll worry those nasty evil for'n sandal wearing beardies, and, to boot, give an additional 20.5757... degrees of furniture capacity in each of the outside corners. What's not to like!
Just as long as my bandwidth for "Expanse" on Amazon Prime isn't scavenged for Drone Mission 12A73-551 I don't care.
It has been obvious that the US govt had a "special relationship" with Amazon since my tax rebates started being offered as Amazon gift cards. This is true, by the way, not a joke.
How is it that Amazon can make profit on service that supposedly saved uncle Sam money (at the scale .gov operated). Or maybe it's paid with tax breaks that taxpayers would offset. Somehow all this mixing of public and private enterprises smells like corruption (no matter what "lobbyists" claimed).
Does anyone worry that we outsource critical functions because our representatives refuse to finance effective data and cloud infrastructure and its support?. No wonder the DOD is dragging their feet. They might have a clue to the reality of the situation.
Because putting your governments business on servers outside your jurisdiction would be stupid, even if the price was better.
Would people feel the USG was more clueful if they called it a "server consolidation" or better yet a "data centre consolidation" to a single data centre (with backup) offering (presumably) high security and high availability as (shared) services?
Same thing. Different language.
Remember though that in a bureaucracy
in house "data center" --> staff and budget --> increased responsibility --> increased power.
external data centre --> loss of staff & budget --> responsibility for migration--> loss of power at the end, since client departments won't have the power to hire and fire AWS.
"many agencies – particularly in the defense sector – are taking heat for being slow to adopt their prescribed IT reforms"
To be fair, I can't see many IT managers and staff (especially in govt sector) falling over themselves to move the data and systems they manage into AWS and hence make themselves redundant.
Such is bureaucracy, such is government, that unifying around any one issue is simply impossible. Expect a fragmented mess. Also expect built-in abuse of those IT systems. Psychopathic politicians wouldn't have it any other way.
Some fun examples:
A) How many DECADES has the US IRS been attempting to modernize, simplify, unify their computer systems? I personally was able to witness one failed attempt from circa 1988. The FAIL goes on.
B) In 2015, the US IRS was hacked, divulging the details of over 100,000 taxpayers.
C) In 2015, the complete and thorough hacking by China of the USA Office of Personnel Management. Data stolen included names, addresses, IDs, Social Security numbers, fingerprints and photographs of everyone from mail room clerks to CIA spies. It was the ultimate US government IT security FAIL.
D) The outrageously out-of-date computer systems that science-oriented organizations within US and state governments are forced to use. Don't faint when you realize that some of them are still suck using DOS. Not kidding. Those 8-inch floppy drives at US missile defense installations? They're still being used.
E) US President, The Trump, initiated an IT security review during his first month in office. It immediately died and has not been heard of since.
F) Read this: "Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems" from 6/2016:
http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/677454.pdf
There's a point when cynicism because wisdom when dealing with large human organizations.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
