AWS GovCloud (US) Compared to Standard AWS Regions - AWS GovCloud (US)

AWS GovCloud (US) Compared to Standard AWS Regions

AWS GovCloud (US) are isolated AWS Regions designed to allow U.S. government agencies and customers to move sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements, including Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High, Department of Defense Security Requirements Guide (DoD SRG) Impact Level 5, and Criminal Justice Services (CJIS). To assist customers in managing their obligations under U.S. export control regimes such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), AWS GovCloud (US) are logically and physically administered exclusively by U.S. citizens

  • AWS GovCloud (US) uses FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic modules for all AWS service API endpoints, unless otherwise indicated in the Service Endpoints section.

  • AWS GovCloud (US) is appropriate for all types of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and unclassified data. For more details, see Maintaining U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) Compliance.

  • The AWS GovCloud (US) Regions are physically isolated and have logical network isolation from all other AWS Regions.

  • AWS restricts all physical and logical access for those staff supporting AWS GovCloud (US) to US Citizens. AWS allows only vetted U.S. citizens with distinct access controls separate from other AWS Regions to administer AWS GovCloud (US). Any customer data fields that are defined as outside of the ITAR boundary (such as S3 bucket names) are explicitly documented in the service-specific section as not permitted to contain export-controlled data.

  • AWS GovCloud (US) authentication is completely isolated from Amazon.com.

AWS GovCloud (US) Regions also have high-level differences compared to the standard AWS Regions. The standard AWS practice of using two AWS Regions in a partition remains. In this case, using both AWS AWS GovCloud (US) Regions for architecture is preferred. These differences are important when you evaluate and use AWS GovCloud (US). The following list outlines the differences:

Sign up

During the sign-up process, each customer is reviewed to determine if they are a U.S. entity (such as a government body, contracting company, or educational organization) where account credentials will be managed by a U.S. Person.

Endpoints

AWS GovCloud (US) uses endpoints that are specific to AWS GovCloud (US) and are publicly available from the Internet but are accessible only to AWS GovCloud (US) customers. For a list of these endpoints, see Service Endpoints.

Credentials

You can access AWS GovCloud (US) only with AWS GovCloud (US) credentials (AWS GovCloud (US) account access key and AWS GovCloud (US) IAM user credentials). You cannot access AWS GovCloud (US) with standard AWS credentials. Likewise, you cannot access standard AWS Regions using AWS GovCloud (US) credentials.

AWS Management Console for the AWS GovCloud (US) Region

You sign in to the AWS GovCloud (US) console by using an IAM user name and password. This requirement is different from the standard AWS Management Console, where you can sign in using your account credentials (email address and password). You cannot use your AWS GovCloud (US) account access keys to sign in to the AWS GovCloud (US) console. For more information about creating an IAM user, see Getting Started with AWS GovCloud (US).

Billing, account activity, and usage reports

An AWS GovCloud (US) account is always associated to a single standard AWS account for billing and payment purposes. All AWS GovCloud (US) billing is billed or invoiced to the associated standard AWS account. You can view the AWS GovCloud (US) account activity and usage reports through the associated AWS standard account only.

Services

Services in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions might have different capabilities compared to services in standard AWS Regions. For detailed information about each service in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, see Using AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

For all AWS GovCloud (US) accounts created after December 15, 2014, AWS CloudTrail will be automatically enabled with logging turned on. Amazon SNS notifications, however, must be set up independently. If you prefer not to have CloudTrail enabled, you can use the CloudTrail console in the AWS Management Console for AWS GovCloud (US) to disable it or turn off logging.

Multi-factor authentication

AWS GovCloud (US) users can use the same FIDO security tokens or virtual authenticator apps as commercial users. However, if instead opting for a TOTP hardware token for MFA, AWS GovCloud (US) users need to use a special device. This is due to the separate authentication stack. For more information, see the list of AWS GovCloud (US)-supported MFA devices on the Multi-Factor Authentication page.

Customer can validate AWS GovCloud (US) account ID from standard Region account by completing the following steps:

  1. Login to standard Region account.

  2. Click on "Account ID Name" in top right-hand corner of screen.

  3. Click on "Account".

  4. Scroll down to the "Sign up for AWS AWS GovCloud (US)" button.

  5. Click on the "Sign up for AWS AWS GovCloud (US)" button.

A note will be displayed stating the following:

Our records show that you already have a GovCloud (US) account. If you lost the password please contact our customer support team. Thank you.
Your account is ready to use.
GovCloud (US) Account ID: XXXXXXXXXXXX (this is the customer's GovCloud account ID)