Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched its second Secret Region in the US.

Dubbed AWS Secret-West, the region can support mission-critical workloads at the Secret US security classification level.

The region uses data centers and network architecture that is designed and accredited according to Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) requirements. It has multiple Availability Zones (AZ) - though the exact number has not been shared. AWS regions typically have at least three AZs.

Details on the region's location weren't shared. AWS's two West-1 and West-2 US commercial regions are located in California and Oregon.

AWS Secret-West enables users to access services authorized at ICD 503 and Department of Defense (DoD) Security Requirements Guide (SRG) Impact Level (IL6). It particularly targets the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense.

Plans to launch the second Secret Region this year were revealed in June 2025.

AWS has been serving federal customers with increased security needs since 2014, when it launched its first secret-level region for use solely by the CIA and delivered as a result of a ten-year, $600 million contract (with inflation, now worth almost $830m) signed in 2013.

In 2017, that region was opened to all members of the US intelligence community. The company also has two "Top Secret" level regions, the second of which launched in 2021.

Other countries also trust AWS with their most secret information. In the UK, Britain's three spy agencies were revealed to be using AWS to host top-secret data in 2021, and the cloud giant is also working with the Australian government, winning a $1.3 billion contract in 2024 to build a data center specifically for top-secret information and enabling staff from agencies such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service to collaborate without using the open Internet.

Earlier this week, AWS had a major outage at its Northern Virginia region. Among those affected are Perplexity, Snapchat, Fortnite, Airtable, Canva, Amazon, Slack, Signal, PlayStation, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Epic Games Store, and the Ring Cameras.