Oracle achieves authorization to host secret classified data

Oracle announced on Monday its government cloud offering is now authorized to host secret classified data, meeting the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Impact Level 6 requirements.  

The authorization means Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is available to defense and intelligence customers at all classification levels, including top secret.

“America’s warfighters must have the world’s preeminent technology and our taxpayers insist that technology is delivered at competitive costs. Oracle is bringing both to the Department of Defense’s Secret networks,” Rand Waldron, Oracle’s vice president, said in a statement to Nextgov/FCW. “Technology no longer sits outside the mission; technology is a part of the mission. In austere locations with limited communication, and in massive secure data centers, Oracle is bringing our best capabilities to serve the men and women that defend the U.S. and our allies.”

The authorization is key for Oracle in competing for task orders under two multibillion-dollar cloud computing contracts: the Central Intelligence Agency’s C2E contract and the Pentagon’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract. Though an awardee on both contracts, Oracle now has the accreditations necessary to compete for task orders that could, for example, require a commercial cloud provider be able to host data at each classification level. Hyperscale competitors Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google have also achieved accreditation at each classification level.

­­­­Oracle’s offering includes air-gapped regions that are disconnected from the internet for the government’s most security-stringent customers, though those regions still make use of innovations delivered through its commercial side.