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A large federal agency responsible for managing correctional facilities required a secure, scalable, and compliant solution in AWS GovCloud. The customer faced strict timelines for achieving FISMA High compliance while creating a robust enterprise storage system. HanaByte assisted in the design, building, and deployment of the infrastructure in less than a month leveraging automated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to accelerate compliance and meet rigorous security requirements. As a result, the agency enhanced its compliance posture, improved operational efficiencies, and ensured that its sensitive workloads were safeguarded in alignment with federal standards.
The customer supports a federal institution responsible for managing a large number of correctional facilities, each with distinct and stringent security and operational needs. Given the sensitive nature of its mission, the agency’s infrastructure must consistently meet or exceed the highest federal compliance and security standards.
The agency already had a strategic relationship with AWS and required the security and compliance benefits of AWS GovCloud (US). AWS GovCloud is uniquely equipped to help U.S. government agencies meet stringent regulatory requirements, including FISMA and FedRAMP High. The region’s specialized compliance controls, coupled with its wide range of services, made it a natural choice to ensure high levels of data protection and operational resiliency.
In addition, AWS provides well-architected frameworks, toolsets, and reference architectures that enable federal agencies to maintain a robust, secure, and scalable environment. This support was crucial for rapidly deploying new infrastructure while following best practices for security, reliability, and operational excellence.
The customer needed to modernize its on-premises storage systems by migrating to AWS GovCloud to support strict FISMA High requirements. The agency required an enterprise storage solution that could securely manage and protect sensitive data while adhering to the federal government’s stringent regulations (including FedRAMP High, FIPS 140-2 Level 3, and NIST 800-53).
Failing to address these requirements would have prevented the agency from utilizing AWS GovCloud for mission-critical workloads. Additionally, non-compliance with FISMA High standards would have posed significant security, reputational, and operational risks—potentially leading to delays, increased costs, or even disqualification from government mandates. With a tight deadline enforced by government schedules, the agency needed a partner with deep expertise in AWS GovCloud and federal compliance to avoid detrimental project setbacks.
AWS Services
AWS Control Tower
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CodePipeline
AWS CodeBuild
AWS CodeDeploy
AWS Organizations
Amazon S3
Amazon RDS
Amazon EC2
Amazon FSx
AWS Systems Manager
AWS Key Management Service
The customer needed an AWS professional services partner with extensive experience in delivering secure, compliant solutions within AWS GovCloud. HanaByte has a deep understanding of FISMA High, FedRAMP High, and NIST requirements, and had previously demonstrated success building automated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions for federal agencies.
This combination of compliance expertise and advanced DevOps capabilities empowered the partner to expedite the customer’s cloud journey. HanaByte’s proven track record in meeting security and regulatory frameworks assured the customer that the partner could deliver a robust, secure storage solution that aligned precisely with all government mandates.
The partner employed the AWS Security Reference Architecture (SRA) to design and deploy a comprehensive, multi-account AWS environment. AWS Control Tower and AWS Service Catalog were used for automated account provisioning and governance. All infrastructure was deployed using AWS CloudFormation templates maintained in GitHub Enterprise, where GitHub Actions handled continuous integration and deployment tasks. Tools such as cfn-lint and CloudFormationGuard validated templates to ensure they followed security best practices and included mandatory tags.
Strict access controls were implemented through AWS IAM and Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) to adhere to NIST standards, while services like GuardDuty, Security Hub, and CloudTrail were deployed via StackSets to streamline security and monitoring across multiple accounts. Amazon S3 was selected for secure object storage, and Amazon FSx provided shared file system capabilities. Database requirements were met with Amazon RDS for Postgres, MySQL, and Oracle, all of which complied with necessary encryption and authentication controls.
AWS Key Management Service (KMS) maintained FIPS 140-2 Level 3 encryption at rest and in transit, while a dedicated log archive and security audit account stored logs for centralized visibility. This robust environment was fully built and validated in under a month, beating the agency’s mandated timeline and allowing ample room for testing, demos, and security reviews by government Information Systems Security Officers (ISSO) and Information Security Systems Managers (ISSM).
Delivery of the solution months before the final deadline enabled the customer to fully test the new enterprise storage system and achieve FISMA High recognition more rapidly than expected.
By adhering to FedRAMP High, FIPS 140-2 Level 3, and NIST standards, the customer significantly bolstered its ability to manage sensitive data securely. Automated IaC and robust CI/CD pipelines greatly reduced the time required for environment provisioning and updates, allowing the agency to iterate more quickly and reduce the risk of human error. Centralized logging, integrated security services, and a well-structured multi-account governance strategy minimized manual overhead, freeing resources to focus on high-priority initiatives. The system’s modular design and reliance on services like Amazon S3 and Amazon FSx also empower the customer to scale storage capacity on demand without compromising security or compliance.
Overall, the new AWS GovCloud environment empowers the agency to efficiently operate a modern, highly secure enterprise storage system that aligns with federal regulations and supports mission-critical objectives well into the future.
HanaByte is a cloud security consultancy focused on compliance automation based out of Atlanta, Georgia. We are a remote-first consulting firm, working with cloud-native technologies and processes on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
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