Please note that the following post is intended for informational purposes only. The approach detailed below may not be suitable for all organizations and compliance programs. It is important to evaluate this potential solution against the compliance requirements of your organization and any applicable regulatory obligations you may have.

Government agencies, defense contractors, and regulated organizations have long faced a hard trade-off when planning large-scale infrastructure migrations: move fast or stay inside a compliance boundary. Historically, the tooling that makes migrations quick and low-risk lived in commercial Regions, while the workloads that most needed to move sat behind strict data-residency and authorization requirements. FedRAMP (the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is the US government-wide framework that standardizes security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. AWS Transform can compress enterprise transformation timelines from years to months, handling everything from large-scale infrastructure migrations to ongoing tech-debt reduction. Now, that work can happen without the manual handoffs and lost context that stall these programs, and it is all within an authorized compliance boundary.

This quarter, three launches start to close that gap. AWS Transform is now available in AWS GovCloud (US-West) and in scope for FedRAMP Class C, and second-generation AWS Outposts racks now can connect to the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. Together, they can bring automated, at-scale migration and consistent hybrid infrastructure inside the boundary where regulated workloads already run.

If you plan or execute migrations for a public sector or regulated organization, here’s what each launch means and how the pieces fit together.

AWS Transform arrives in AWS GovCloud (US-West)

AWS Transform is now available in the AWS GovCloud (US-West) Region, so agencies and regulated organizations can plan and run large-scale migrations without leaving the AWS GovCloud (US) boundary designed for sensitive data and regulated workloads. From this region, you can target both AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West) as migration destinations.

The core value is automating migration work that used to be manual and error prone. Organizations moving VMware, bare metal, Hyper-V, or database workloads can use AWS Transform to automate discovery, wave planning, landing zone creation, network conversion and migration, server replication, and cutover. This reduces the manual effort and risk that can come with moving large workload fleets and supporting infrastructure. That matters most for federal agencies, defense contractors, and regulated industries that operate entirely inside the AWS GovCloud (US) boundary and who may have small teams that don’t have the staff, time, or budget to take on the manual effort of discovering, planning, or migrating their workloads.

One scoping note is worth planning around: this regional launch covers the migration capabilities. Modernization, custom transformation, and assessment capabilities are not part of this AWS GovCloud (US-West) launch and remain available in supported commercial Regions. If your program depends on those, factor into where each phase of your work runs.

AWS Transform is now in scope for FedRAMP Class C

Alongside the Region expansion, AWS Transform is now in scope for FedRAMP Class C, formerly the Moderate baseline, in the US East (N. Virginia) Region. From that region, you can use AWS Transform to migrate and modernize resources located across the US East and US West Regions to meet FedRAMP Class C compliance requirements.

There’s a second level of compliant services for more sensitive workloads: AWS Transform MGN is in scope for FedRAMP Class D and can be used on its own to migrate resources that require Class D compliance.

Second-generation AWS Outposts racks can connect to AWS GovCloud (US)

Migration is rarely all or nothing. Many regulated organizations choose for some workloads to stay on premises for latency or data-residency reasons even as the rest move to the cloud — and that’s where the third launch comes in. Second-generation AWS Outposts racks are now supported in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West) Regions.

Outposts racks can extend AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to virtually any on-premises data center or colocation space, giving you a consistent hybrid experience. With this expansion, organizations from startups to enterprises and public sector agencies can order Outposts racks to connect to the newly supported Regions, optimizing for their own latency and data-residency needs. You can keep workloads that need low-latency access to on-premises systems running locally while connecting back to your home region for application management, and you can process data that organizations choose to remain on-premises to satisfy residency requirements.

To learn more about the second-generation Outposts racks, see the Outposts blog post and user guide. For the current list of countries, territories, and the AWS Regions where second-generation Outposts racks are supported, check the Outposts rack FAQs.

How the three fit together

Individually, these are three separate releases. In combination, these services can provide a single, more capable path for regulated infrastructure migrations:

• With AWS Transform in AWS GovCloud (US-West) you get automated server migration inside the government boundary.
• FedRAMP Class C (and Class D via AWS Transform MGN) enables organizations to meet requirements for an authorized compliance posture for migration and modernization work.
• Outposts racks in AWS GovCloud (US) offer consistent hybrid infrastructure for the workloads that stay on premises.

The net effect: you can assess and move fleets faster, do it within a recognized compliance boundary, and keep a consistent operating model spanning cloud and on-premises — without stepping outside the security-compliant environment where your organization’s regulated workloads operate.

Conclusion

For public sector and regulated organizations, the question is shifting from whether the right migration tooling exists inside the boundary to how quickly you can put it to work. If you’re planning a migration, a good next step is to identify which workloads are candidates for AWS Transform’s automated replication and cutover, confirm which FedRAMP baseline (Class C or Class D) your resources require, and map which systems candidates to stay on premises on Outposts racks or move to an AWS GovCloud (US) Region.

To learn more, review the launch announcements for AWS Transform in GovCloud (US-West), AWS Transform FedRAMP Class C, and second-generation AWS Outposts racks in GovCloud (US).