Amazon Web Services to Add 500 IT jobs in Virginia

A chart at Netcraft illustrates the massive growth of Amazon Web Services.

The Winning Formula You Need For a New Job

The accompanying article says AWS’ tally of web-facing computers has grown by more than a third in the past eight months, to 158,000.

In the midst of that growth, the company plans to add 500 IT jobs in Fairfax County, Va., according to an announcement from the office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. It contains no timeline on the expected hiring or the particular positions to be available.

The company obviously wants to be close to the nation’s capital. It recently was granted certification under the government’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) program. FedRAMP provides a standardized approach for the assessment of security, authorization and continuous monitoring of cloud products and services, according to CRN.

Although the Department of Health and Human Services granted AWS the “Authority to Operate,” the designation is expected to have a wide impact on the company’s government contracts.

CRN quotes Max Peterson, director of partners, capture and contracts at AWS, as saying:

“This can now be leveraged by other agencies that want to do move to the cloud. All the basic security information for Amazon has now been tested, validated and filed with the government. A lot of our partners are working with federal agencies to migrate applications to the cloud, and they’ll be able to leverage the same compliance and package to be able to help agencies speed up their adoption of the cloud.”