Amazon Web Services (AWS) Expands DC-Area Presence, Big Government Alliance

Image: techcrunch.com

The commonwealth of Virginia recently announced that Amazon Web Services would add 500 employees to AWS' DC-area offices. The Cavalier State's Republican governor let the world know about this development via a news release. The story appeared on a slow news cycle in today's Washington Post.

The announcement and fawningly written WaPo article (which mischaracterized the tech company as a "retail giant") treated Amazon's decision as if it were the Second Coming. The piece pointedly noted how the average of the jobs' salaries would reach low six-figures. Meanwhile, the state provided Amazon with a $500,000 grant "to assist Amazon's recruitment and training." Why these supposedly high-tech, highly qualified applicants would need government assistance to become fully prepared for their new employment remained unstated.

The principal reason AWS is moving into northern Virginia's Dulles Internet-heavy corridor involves federal contracts. Free-enterprise Amazon has discovered the lucrative attractions of Big Government's data needs. Earlier this year, I blogged about Amazon's data storage contract with the Central Intelligence Agency. The pro-Amazon Obama Administration, enamored with Big Data's clout and reach, has intentionally or otherwise provided very useful services to Jeff Bezos' empire. Given that scenario, it is unsurprising that today's WaPo story observed that Amazon's Virginia "expansion follows an announcement this month by Amazon Web Services that the federal government had put the company on a fast track to sell it cloud computing services."

Characteristically, Amazon remained tightlipped about its plans. "An Amazon spokesman," the WaPo article noted, "declined to add more specifics, such as when the jobs would be added." Maybe the CIA has finally found its soulmate. The spooks could even offer it a codename: Sleepless in Seattle.