Washington State Cloud

The Washington State Cloud provides customers with an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud located within the State Data Center (SDC) and Quincy Data Center (QDC). Using a self-service portal, customers have on-demand access to a shared pool of compute resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released as virtual servers on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The State Cloud shared virtual infrastructure reduces or eliminates the need for capital expenditures by the customer and allows them to realize cost savings compared to physical server environments. Options such as increasing storage, server memory and virtual processors-along with the ability to do server backups-are available during and after provisioning.

Features & Benefits

This cloud service offers you a significant number of features and benefits, including:

  • Automated self-provisioning.
  • Upgradable/downgradable virtual machine (VM) resources.
  • On-demand instances.
  • Windows Server and Red Hat licensing included.
  • VM snapshots.
  • 10Gb host networking.
  • Supports Enterprise Active Directory (EAD) authentication for management.
  • Data stored on state-maintained equipment.
  • Storage encryption using FIPS 140-2 compliant AES-256 bit encryption key.
  • Highly available hyper-converged clusters in an N+2 configuration. This means we use an infrastructure that combines compute, storage, networking and virtualization tasks into one tightly integrated system (which increases efficiency), while using redundancy to increase the reliability of the system.
  • Automated hardware failover.
  • Dynamic load balancing spreads traffic across a larger number of hosts providing increased network availability.
  • Environment can evolve to comply with future state Office of Cybersecurity standards.
  • State Government Network (SGN) connectivity without overhead of a virtual private network.
  • Servers can be on the SGN or the Public Government Network.
  • Disaster recovery using Zerto Disaster Recovery orchestration tools (optional with fees).
    • Automated recoveries.
    • Replicate servers efficiently.
    • Simplify disaster recovery process.
    • Recover from multiple checkpoints.
    • Supports extremely short recovery point and recovery time objectives.
    • Uses Cisco's Overlay Transport Virtualization features in the network to preserve IP addresses and minimize configuration changes during disaster recoveries.
    • Recovery infrastructure resources available at all times.
    • Test on customer's own schedule.
    • Redundant 10Gb connectivity between SDC and QDC.
    • Networking included - no data ingress or egress fees.
  • VMware NSX-T (managed by the WS Cloud team. It is optional, no charge).
    • Microsegmentation - Easily create, enforce, and automatically manage granular micro-segmentation policies between applications, services, and workloads across multi-cloud environments spanning VMs, containers.
  • Microsoft SQL licensing available (optional with additional fees).
  • Server OS technical support (optional with additional fees).
  • Failover redundancy with other WaTech services (optional with additional fees).
    • Server Backup Services.
    • Firewall services.
    • Secure gateways.
    • Internet services.
    • VPN services.

Optional services (for additional fees)

  • Server Backup Service
  • Managed Server Support
    • WaTech can manage the server operating system for you.
  • Netapp storage
    • Commodity storage is .07 per GB per month.
    • Performance storage is .10 per GB per month.
    • Storage can be encrypted if requested.
  • Automated self-provisioning.
  • Upgradable/downgradable virtual machine (VM) resources.
  • On-demand instances.
  • Windows licensing included.
  • VM snapshots.
  • 10Gb host networking.
  • Supports Enterprise Active Directory (EAD) authentication for management.
  • Data stored on state-maintained equipment.
  • Highly available hyper-converged clusters in an N+2 configuration. This means we use an infrastructure that combines compute, storage, networking and virtualization tasks into one tightly integrated system (which increases efficiency), while using redundancy to increase the reliability of the system.
  • Automated hardware failover.
  • Dynamic load balancing spreads traffic across a larger number of hosts, providing increased network availability.
  • Environment can evolve to comply with future Office of Chief Information Officer security standards.
  • State Government Network (SGN) connectivity without overhead of a virtual private network.
  • Servers can be on the SGN or the Public Government Network (internet-facing).
  • Disaster recovery using Zerto Disaster Recovery orchestration tools (optional with fees).
    • Automated recoveries.
    • Replicate servers efficiently.
    • Simplify disaster recovery process.
    • Recover from multiple checkpoints.
    • Supports extremely short recovery point and recovery time objectives.
    • Uses Cisco's Overlay Transport Virtualization features in the network to preserve IP addresses and minimize configuration changes during disaster recoveries.
    • Resources available at all times.
    • Test on customer's own schedule.
    • 10Gb connectivity between SDC and QDC.
    • Networking included - no data transfer fees.
  • Trend Deep Security Firewall available (optional, no charge).
    • Anti-virus/anti-malware software available.
    • Intrusion prevention software available.
  • Microsoft SQL licensing available from WaTech SQL Team (optional).
  • Server technical support (optional).
  • Failover redundancy with other WaTech services.
    • Server Backup Services.
    • Firewall services.
    • Secure gateways.
    • Internet services.
    • VPN services

Pricing

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) - Single VM Instances

Minimum Configuration: 1 vCPU; 4GB Memory; 100GB Storage

Components can be added in these increments:

  • Virtual CPU 1vCPU increments
  • Memory 1GB increments
  • Storage 1GB increments

 

SDC and QDC

Hourly Rates*

Daily Rates*

Maximum Monthly*

vCPU (Core/Hour)

$0.051694

$1.240656

$37.84

Memory (GB/Hour)

$0.010820

$0.259672

$7.92

Storage (GB/Hour)

$0.000120

$0.002886

$0.088

*At the direction of the Legislature, prices were reduced in July 2021 by 12% for a 24-month period during the FY21-22 biennium. Those rates will expire June 30, 2023.
Rates shown are calculated on a 366-day year, 30.5 days per month, and 732 hours per month.

Pre-Service Requirements

In order to use this service, your organization must:

How to Order

Contact the WaTech Support Center to schedule an operational consultation.

If you have questions or need assistance regarding a strategic consultation, please contact your agency Business Relationship Manager (BRM).

Request estimate for services

Submit a request for an estimate through our Customer Portal.

Required forms

Service Forms & Documents

Contact

If you are interested in using this service or would like to learn more, fill out the Customer Interest Form or contact the WaTech Support Center.

WaTech Support Center
support@watech.wa.gov
855-928-3241
360-586-1000