HAQM to launch second Secret Cloud Region in 2025

The new AWS Secret-West Region will extend support for classified government missions and strengthen U.S. AI leadership

HAQM today announced it will launch its second Secret Cloud Region in 2025. The new AWS Secret-West Region will be accredited to support workloads up to the U.S. Secret classification level. With two regions accredited at the Secret level, defense and national security customers and partners can deploy multi-Region architectures, achieving even higher levels of resiliency and availability essential to their critical missions and enabling AI innovation.

“The launch of the AWS Secret-West Region will strengthen U.S. AI leadership and accelerate the development of advanced capabilities and groundbreaking innovation,” said Dave Levy, vice president of Worldwide Public Sector at HAQM Web Services (AWS). “Customers using the new AWS Secret-West Region will be able to use advanced technologies from the world’s leading cloud provider and see their critical missions enhanced by the operational speed, scalability, security, and innovation that AWS provides.”

Architected for mission resiliency

With the AWS Secret-West Region, the national security and defense community can deploy multi-Region architectures for their mission critical workloads in two Secret Regions, each consisting of multiple Availability Zones. These Regions and Availability Zones enable customers to build highly resilient architectures and store data close to users for latency-sensitive workloads. AWS’s classified Regions meet the same high standards for reliability, availability, and durability as other AWS Regions.

AWS Regions include multiple Availability Zones, and the new AWS Secret-West Region is a significant advancement of its robust existing architecture. By using Availability Zones, customers can operate latency-sensitive production applications and databases much more resiliently than would be possible with a single data center. AWS supports synchronous data replication to a different Availability Zone in the same Region or asynchronous replication to a different Region. Using AWS, customers design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones in the same Region for high availability and across multiple Regions to achieve even greater fault tolerance.

Optimized for security

At AWS, security is the top priority and customers benefit from data centers and network architecture built to meet the requirements of the most security sensitive organizations. AWS was the first cloud provider accredited to support government workloads across the full range of U.S. government data classifications, including Unclassified, Secret, and Top Secret. This security-first approach will be essential as the national security and defense community continues to develop and deploy AI solutions.

“The Army welcomes the announcement by AWS regarding the availability of a second Secret AWS cloud region, which will enhance support for critical warfighting IT systems and data,” said Leo Garciga, the chief information officer of the U.S. Army. “This new region offers key benefits that align with the Army’s modernization priorities and will function as a highly resilient backup site, safeguarding combat-essential applications and information from disruptions, thereby improving the lethality and readiness of our forces.”

Proven commitment

In 2011, AWS GovCloud (US-West) launched, making AWS the first cloud provider to build cloud infrastructure designed to meet U.S. government security and compliance needs. In 2014, AWS launched its first Top Secret Region, AWS Top Secret-East, which was the first air-gapped commercial cloud accredited to support classified workloads. In 2017, the AWS Secret Region launched and AWS became the first cloud provider accredited to support government workloads across the full range of U.S. government data classifications, including Unclassified, Secret, and Top Secret. In 2021, AWS announced its second Top Secret Region—AWS Top Secret-West. This year, AWS will expand support for classified U.S. government workloads with the launch of the AWS Secret-West Region.

AWS is unwavering in its commitment to helping defense and national security communities achieve mission success. AWS continues to innovate with customers and partners, providing unparalleled capabilities that increase their operational speed, mission resiliency, and security. By removing the undifferentiated heavy lifting of the underlying IT infrastructure, U.S. defense and national security leaders can focus on what’s most important—protecting the country and its people.