The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has authorized
IBM – often refered to as ‘Big Blue’ – to deliver cloud services at ‘Impact Level 5’. IBM, which has headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States, is traditionally recognized as a provider of hardware and software but over recent years has become a major cloud player, especially after its purchase of SoftLayer. The company can now provide cloud services that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) could use to store ‘Controlled Unclassified Information’.
The move makes IBM the first cloud provider to have a direct DoD internal network connection (or Nonsecure Internet Protocol Router Network) and enables the DoD to store and manage sensitive data in the cloud. DISA has granted IBM permission to provide cloud services out of the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) data center in West Virginia, United States, a center that IBM has leased.
The DoD’s move to the cloud has been estimated to cost the agency around $4 billion in 2016. To facilitate the move, IBM has worked with the DoD and a number of U.S universities.
“Department of Defense agencies have the opportunity to embrace commercial cloud best practices and technology with the security of a government-owned facility,” explained IBM Federal’s General Manager, Sam Gordy. “It will also provide DoD agencies with an ideal option to launch workloads in a hybrid cloud that can be easily integrated with their on premise systems. DoD is serving as a strong model to other cabinet level agencies in the federal government.”
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