Two Days with AWS Federal

June 18, 2009 / G C Network /
Source connect logo in blue and white color.

SourceConnecte! Marketplace With A Mission

By pwsadmin | March 6, 2020

Earlier this year, GC GlobalNet launched a new breed of B2B e-commerce sites. Curated by Kevin L. Jackson, SourceConnecte (with an “eâ€) went live with three strategic goals in mind: Efficiently leverage modern…

A man sitting on top of a building with a laptop.

Potential vs. Reality: Is Edge Computing Real?

By pwsadmin | January 19, 2020

Edge computing provides compute, storage, and networking resources close to devices generating traffic. Its benefits are based on an ability to provide new services capable of meeting stringent operational requirements…

An aerial view of a truck on a road near the ocean.

Enabling Digital Transformation

By pwsadmin | December 22, 2019

Digital transformation integrates technology into all areas of an organization’s business or mission. Its fundamental purpose is to create and deliver innovative and industry-changing products and services to a global…

A woman in red sitting on a chair with the word thinkshield.

The ThinkShield Story Part 1: The Challenge

By G C Network | October 24, 2019

  The cybersecurity challenge seems to be growing daily. Threats are becoming more sophisticated, and attacks are becoming more destructive while the corporate world’s response seems to resemble a deer…

A group of people walking up a set of stairs.

CIO dream team: Who’s in and why?

By G C Network | October 12, 2019

Today’s CIO navigates the twin challenges of enabling new business models and managing rapid technological change. Cloud computing strategies are now table stakes. CIOs must make complex decisions about using…

The ibm logo is seen on a black and blue computer.

Digital Transformation and the Mainframe

By G C Network | September 1, 2019

Digital transformation infuses digital technology into all areas of an organization’s business or mission. Its fundamental purpose is to create and deliver innovative and industry-changing digital products and services to…

A man standing in a server room with blue lights.

Composable Architecture Q&A. Are you ready?

By G C Network | August 26, 2019

Q: Is it time for my company to jump on the composable architecture bandwagon? A: Composable architectures are quickly becoming essential to the modern enterprise. Citing a recent Forrester study:…

A diagram showing a network of devices.

Increase Productivity by Reducing Technology Distraction: Lessons from Forrester Research

By G C Network | August 8, 2019

Workplace productivity is hurt every day by the very technology developed and purchased to improve it. Forrester announced this surprising conclusion in their latest “How To Wake Up From The Nightmare…

A series of pictures showing different types of products.

Unveiling the end-to-end capabilities for the networked society

By G C Network | June 10, 2019

An Interview with Henrik Basilier  By Kevin L. Jackson The telecom industry is rapidly moving towards a future in which networks must have the capabilities of delivering services with the…

A man is holding a credit card on a tablet.

AT&T Finance Solutions GM on Shrimping, Software, and CX

By G C Network | June 10, 2019

Helping clients address the trends and challenges presented by the Financial Services industry is the main focus for René Dufrene in his role as General Manager of Finance Solutions at…

Today, I start two days of training with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Federal. If that’s the first time you’ve ever heard about an AWS Federal division, your not alone. Held in downtown Washington, DC the course was invite-only and attendance was IT services firms that had demonstrated a clear track record of success in the Federal market. The companies invited to this inaugural session were:
o Abacus Technology Corp (https://www.abacustech.com)
o Acumen Solutions, Inc. (https://www.acumensolutions.com)
o Foxhole Technology (https://www.foxholetechnology.com)
o Information Concepts (https://www.infoconcepts.com)
o Touchstone Consulting Group (https://www.touchstone.com)
o Turner Consulting Group (https://www.tcg.com)
From the AWS point of view, the stated objectives were to provide a high level overview of AWS, share their technology roadmap, develop joint sales/marketing strategy with key partners and to build stronger relationships within the Federal marketplace.
Personally, this was the first time I had ever heard the seminal AWS question: Do we have to start from 1st principles every time? In retrospect, this view really makes sense. AWS focuses on the “undifferentiated heavy lifting” letting their customers focus on their business – “differentiated value creation”. This was also the first time I had heard of the “70/30 switch”. Traditionally, up to 70% of an organization’s IT resources are dedicated to necessary and mundane grunt work:
  • hardware management
  • software management
  • maintenance
  • load balancing
  • scaling
  • utilization
  • idle machines
  • bandwidth management
AWS optimizes the grunt work and enables the switch, allowing their customers to focus that 70% on value creation.
The morning session focused on describing the various AWS services. Some key points included:
  • Nothing on the AWS platform is language or technology dependant. Strings and HTTP seem to be the basis of everything
  • AWS offers application and operating system level visibility allowing customers to use their own application and/or operating system level monitor and scale solutions
  • Licensing software on AWS is dependant on the software provider. Microsoft won’t let you bring your company’s licenses into the cloud. Oracle and IBM, on the other hand, will let you put all your licenses on the cloud platform.
  • Software that binds itself to specific hardware can still be a problem.
  • Stay tuned for some exciting innovations around developer account capabilities (Account and subaccount availability)
The afternoon session did a deep dive on security. Yes, their system is secure. In the end, technology is not an issue. Within the Federal space the question is policy on the government side and a valid business case on the Amazon side.
(6/19 Update: In response to reader comments, security depends on the metrics an organization is required to meet. My statements on AWS security is not valid for all potential implementations.)
I would like to thank Carl Moses, Eric Lee and Kevin Kelly for today’s welcomed and insightful session. The (unofficial) existence of AWS Federal is exciting news. I can’t wait to learn more tomorrow.

Follow me on https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in , , ,

G C Network

2 Comments

  1. andy on June 18, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    I always enjoy learning how other people employ Amazon S3 online storage. I am wondering if you can check out my very own tool CloudBerry Explorer that helps to manage S3 on Windows . It is a freeware.
    With CloudBerry Explorer PRO you can even connect to FTP accounts



  2. Blogking on June 22, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    On the subject of load balancing, why not get the highest availability while not getting caught in high prices? Kemp’s got some great load balancers that are low priced and high in quality:

    http://www.kemptechnologies.com/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=pv&utm_content=zs&utm_campaign=home



Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity