What Enterprises Can Learn: Pentagon Moving Classified Info to the Cloud

There’s a billion-dollar fight between the big cloud providers, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM, Oracle, and General Dynamics. The Pentagon calls this the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud. They are planning to make the decision in September. There is a lot enterprises can learn from this news.

JEDI will store the government’s most classified information, such as nuclear secrets. Thus, the government will extensively vet anyone at the selected company who may have access to the classified information. Although, this won’t amount to many tech company employees.

There isn’t an obvious frontrunner for this cloud deal, but most seem to believe it will be Amazon. Amazon is the largest cloud provider, plus they have worked with the CIA and the Defense Department. Google has also worked with the government on Maven. Additionally, this week, Microsoft announced a deal with the US Intelligence Community.

The Pentagon made it clear that they were not interested in using a multi-cloud environment, which is the strategy of many large enterprises. They said that spreading the information across multiple clouds would hinder their ability to access and analyze crucial data. They believe that a single environment increases the effectiveness of machine learning and AI.

Takeaways

This kind of trust is telling. Some have criticized the cloud’s inherent security functionality but putting the nation’s most classified information in a single cloud emphasizes improved security and a global trust in cloud environments. Anyone skeptical of moving to the cloud should take this as reassurance. There are many benefits to this decision from a security and access perspective.

Enterprises obviously won’t have the same billions of dollars to work with, but the cloud is accessible at any scale. Also, despite the Pentagon wanting a single cloud, this may not be the best decision. Certain classified information could be more secure in a separate cloud. Many enterprises today use multi or hybrid cloud environments for security reasons.

Why a multi-cloud may be better

Isolating data is always a sound option. Maybe one cloud provider has better data storage options for your company’s specific needs. It’s also possible that you want to keep your cloud workloads separate from other types of data that your company holds. Sometimes it’s cheaper to keep data separate.

This comes back to weighing cost vs benefit. Sure, you could keep all your data and workloads on one cloud, but that may end up being costly. This also relates vendor lock-in. If you have a single provider that isn’t working for you and your data, vendor lock-in can become problematic. The Pentagon’s multi-billion dollar deal will certainly lead to a vendor lock-in.

Some clouds have a higher focus on security or better optimization with certain security tools. Obviously, a higher security platform would be safer for the highly confidential data storage. Having multiple clouds gives your company complete control over your cloud data. It mitigates risk and makes data migration much easier.

The Pentagon certainly knows what it wants in regards to this deal. Enterprises should not put much stock in whatever they decide. Each company and organization is different. Chances are, you don’t need the same approach as the Pentagon.