The Federal Aviation Administration will soon be floating in the Cloud and benefiting from advanced computing solutions through a partnership with leading companies in the Cloud industry. After a careful process, the agency has announced that CSC Government Solutions will lead an overall integration effort that will also include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and other leading Cloud providers.

The $108 million, 10-year contract will enable the FAA to take advantage of Cloud technologies such as Software As-A-Service, Platform As-A-Service, Infrastructure As-A-Service and Colocation in a highly secure and resilient environment.

Being in the Cloud will give the FAA on-demand, pay-per-use computing and data storage over a secure FTI connection. The move away from FAA-owned data centers to outsourced locations will increase efficiencies and flexibility while saving time and money – all while making information-sharing much easier. The FAA can now purchase IT as-a-service rather than buying expensive facilities and hardware that quickly becomes outdated. The agency will be able to keep up with industry standards and innovate on a much larger scale.

The program will be rolled out in phases over the next year or so. Work will start immediately to assess all existing applications and determine which ones are suitable for the Cloud. Once the infrastructure is established, the FAA will start migrating systems into the Cloud environment. When the agency is on the Cloud, users will be able to store and access information from any location at any time on approved devices with an Internet connection.