A re:Invent moment that changes the conversation
If you caught this article and you’re reading this as a government CIO or technology leader heading to AWS re:Invent next week, you’re probably already contemplating what to do on the heels of this news: Amazon is investing $50 billion in purpose-built AI and supercomputing infrastructure for federal agencies. By next year.
Let me be direct: this announcement isn’t really about what Amazon is building. It’s about what you should be building. No, you do not have to become a pure builder; you just need a boost from a partner to get started.
Here’s what actually matters: AWS is not locking you in.
Infrastructure Without Vendor Lock-In
For years, government agencies faced a false choice: build your own AI infrastructure (impossible at scale) or bet everything on a single vendor’s stack.
That created real problems. You’d identify an AI use case – threat detection, research acceleration, compliance automation – but then you’d be forced into architectural decisions based on vendor preference, not mission need. Your most technical employees and data scientists would ask, “What model solves this best?” and the answer was always, “Whichever one the cloud provider wants to sell.”
AWS just changed that equation. When they deploy this infrastructure across Top Secret, Secret, and GovCloud regions, agencies will have genuine access to Anthropic’s Claude, Amazon’s own models, open-source foundation models, and more. No forced consolidation. Real optionality.
That’s architecturally significant. It means you’re choosing models based on capability, cost, and security – not based on which vendor owns the infrastructure.
Why This Actually Matters
This is how serious AI infrastructure should actually work.
When you’re building production systems in classified environments, you need to make technical decisions based on:
- Model capability for your specific mission problem.
- Cost profiles that match your budget constraints.
- Security and auditability requirements for classified workloads.
- Long-term flexibility to evolve your approach as AI technology changes.
Building infrastructure with model choice built in from the ground up is the right architectural approach. It’s what platforms that last actually do.
The Bridge Between Infrastructure and Impact
Here’s the reality that most discussions about government AI miss: you’re not trying to become a software development shop. You’re not going to hire teams of data scientists and machine learning engineers. And you certainly can’t afford to spend tens of millions on generic enterprise COTS solutions that don’t fit how you actually work.
So what do you actually need? Purpose-built custom software that’s configurable to your specific mission, secure by design, and requires minimal FTEs to maintain and operate.
That’s what Presidio’s solution accelerators do. PublicOne for unified government services. Captivate for intelligent video analysis. Human AI (HAI) for legacy system modernization. These aren’t templates or frameworks that require armies of engineers to customize. They’re production-ready solutions designed specifically for how state and local governments operate.
This AWS infrastructure investment changes the economics. We can now deploy these accelerators running on secure, classified compute with genuine model optionality. You get software built for your mission, running on infrastructure built for your security requirements, with the flexibility to evolve your AI approach as technology changes.
And critically: you maintain it with your existing staff. You don’t need to hire a new division to run it.
What This Means for Your Agency Right Now
Between now and the end of 2026, when this infrastructure starts coming online, you have a window to do the real work:
Understand your mission problems deeply. Not “We should use AI somewhere.” Specific problems where AI-powered solutions would actually change how your agency works. Faster case resolution? Smarter resource allocation? Better constituent service? Get clear on what matters.
Don’t try to build it yourself. You don’t have the FTEs, the budget, or the need to. Talk to partners who’ve already built solutions for agencies like yours. Solutions that are configurable to your specific context but don’t require you to staff a software development team.
Start with pilots on existing capacity. AWS already has Secret and Top Secret regions live. Proof-of-concepts with real accelerators – not generic AI experiments – give you clarity on what actually works for your agency before you commit to full deployment.
Plan for operational simplicity. The solution you implement should improve your agency’s capability without exploding your operational overhead. That’s the whole point. Purpose-built software that your existing team can run.
What I’ll Be Listening For at re:Invent
The announcements around new capacity will be impressive. But the conversation that actually matters is simpler: how do agencies actually use this without turning into software companies?
The smart conversations will be about accelerators and purpose-built solutions, not platforms. About how to deploy production-ready AI capabilities with minimal staffing overhead. About configuration and customization, not building from scratch.
That’s where the real opportunity is for government agencies. Not in becoming builders, but in getting built-for-you solutions running on infrastructure designed for their mission.
The Real Opportunity
AWS is building infrastructure. That’s significant. But infrastructure alone doesn’t change missions. And it certainly doesn’t magically give you the engineering capacity to build AI solutions from scratch.
What actually changes missions is this: secure, classified infrastructure combined with purpose-built solutions already designed for how government works combined with the ability to maintain those solutions with your existing staff.
You don’t need to become a software development shop. You don’t need to hire rooms full of data scientists. You need accelerators – configurable, secure, scalable software built for government agencies – running on infrastructure designed for your security requirements.
That’s what we’re delivering. And that’s the conversation worth having at re:Invent.
If you’re a state or local government technology leader, come talk to our team at Presidio. Find us at Booth #1210 or schedule a private meeting. We can show you how Presidio accelerators work with this new AWS infrastructure. We can walk you through real pilots where agencies are solving actual mission problems without exploding their operational overhead. We can help you understand what your agency can actually accomplish between now and the end of 2026.
The infrastructure is coming. But you don’t need to be builders to use it well. You just need the right accelerators. We can help.
MEET US AT RE:INVENT 2025
