What is AWS GovCloud and How Can I Qualify?

What is AWS GovCloud and How Can I Qualify?

AWS GovCloud is a specialized cloud infrastructure designed to meet the unique regulatory and compliance requirements of government agencies, contractors, and customers in highly regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and defense. It provides a secure and compliant environment for running sensitive workloads that require strict compliance with regulations such as FedRAMP, ITAR, HIPAA, and others.

To qualify for AWS GovCloud, an organization must be a US government agency or contractor, or a customer in a regulated industry that requires compliance with specific regulations. The organization must also complete a vetting process to verify its eligibility for the AWS GovCloud environment.

The vetting process for AWS GovCloud involves applying to AWS and providing detailed information about the organization’s compliance requirements and security needs. AWS then reviews the application and works with the organization to determine whether it meets the eligibility criteria for AWS GovCloud.

Once an organization is approved for AWS GovCloud, it can provision resources within the GovCloud environment to run its workloads. However, it should be noted that AWS GovCloud is a separate environment from AWS’s commercial regions, and customers must use different account credentials to access and manage their resources within the GovCloud environment.

In summary, AWS GovCloud is a specialized cloud infrastructure designed to meet the regulatory and compliance requirements of government agencies, contractors, and customers in highly regulated industries. To qualify for AWS GovCloud, an organization must be approved through a vetting process that verifies its eligibility for the environment.