Federal Computer Week reports the CIA just decided on a choice of cloud-- reportedly the agency signed a 10-year, $600 million cloud computing deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
According to anonymous sources AWS will provide a cost-effective private cloud infrastructure, one allowing the CIA to keep pace with big data and other emerging technologies. FCW also speculates the CIA plans to run public cloud-style infrastructure within its firewalls, negating potential classified data leaks.
The CIA's current cloud efforts involve a number of smaller, highly specific private clouds.
Both Amazon and CIA decline to comment on the story.
Industry experts describe the move as a "game-changer" in the cuts-facing world of federal IT-- and a blow to Amazon competitors such as private cloud specialist VMware.
Switching to a more secure cloud might also help the agency avoid recent embarassments, such as the 2012 Anonymous website takedown and the 2011 hack by Anonymous offshoot Lulzsec.