Google LLC today detailed that its private cloud platform, GDC Hosted, is now authorized to run a wider range of sensitive public sector workloads.
GDC Hosted became generally available last March. This allows organizations to deploy a smaller version of Google Cloud in a private data center. According to the company, the GDC hosting environment can operate without connection to the Google Cloud data center network or the public web.
“GDC Hosted is an isolated cloud solution purpose-built to meet stringent security requirements, enabling the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies to leverage advanced cloud capabilities while hosting, controlling, and managing infrastructure and services in a highly secure environment. I will do it.” Leigh Palmer, Google’s Vice President of Public Sector, wrote in her blog post:
Search giant GDC Hosted says it now has permission to host top secret and classified workloads for the U.S. intelligence community. Additionally, the platform is certified to support top secret U.S. Department of Defense workloads. According to Google, this means CGD Hosted can now host data such as government personnel records, translated text, maps, and information about pending cyber threats.
The platform uses technology from the CNSA 2.0 software package to protect customer data. This is a collection of publicly available encryption algorithms that the NSA has deemed suitable for protecting sensitive government data. The algorithm can block not only standard cyberattacks, but also password-breaking attempts run by theoretical large-scale quantum computers that could be built in the future.
Reliable encryption algorithms alone are not enough to defend against hackers. The Software must be applied in a way that minimizes the risk of malfunction and degradation of performance.
Companies often achieve this goal with the help of cryptographic modules, which are hardware devices optimized to perform cryptographic operations. These devices take many forms, from dedicated devices to collections of circuits within server processors. Google said GDC Hosted complies with FIPS 140-2/3, a set of cybersecurity requirements for cybersecurity modules used in the public sector.
In addition to breach prevention features, the platform provides access to a variety of services available on Google Cloud. It offers block and object storage as well as the option to deploy workloads on virtual machines or containers. Customers who choose the latter path can use Google Kubernetes Engine to manage their container clusters.
GDC Hosted also provides core application components for software development teams. There is a version of Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s suite of AI services with pre-trained neural networks and custom model deployment tools. Customer-developed applications can maintain information in PostgreSQL and Oracle databases.