Amazon Web Services is making its foray into the encrypted messaging industry. The company has announced the acquisition of the secure communications service Wickr. The messaging app has positioned itself as the go-to service for government, military groups, and enterprises.
It claims to be the only collaboration service that meets security criteria outlined by the National Security Agency (NSA). AWS will continue operating the service under the name Wickr with minimal changes. The services will be offered to AWS customers and in a blog post from the VP and CISO of AWS, Stephen Schmidt, that’s going to be ‘effective immediately.’
AWS has been doing well
The financial terms of the deal are still under wraps. Wickr has raised almost $60 million in funding, according to Pitchbook’s data, which also notes that the company is valued at a little under $30 million. However, that estimate is old.
Meanwhile, AWS has been raking in money for its eCommerce giant parent, posting revenues of $13.5 billion last quarter, up 32% year-on-year, with a net income of $8.1 billion. Amazon buying a messaging product comes when it is dealing with a dispute about the JEDI contract.
The JEDI contract
The purchase of a messaging service geared for government agencies coincides with the $10 billion JEDI contract to provide services to the US that Microsoft was granted when Trump was president. It is not clear if this is Amazon’s way of building out and fleshing its infrastructure and offerings, or simply a sign it will continue to try to sell to that market even if the JEDI contract is not awarded to the juggernaut. The move also signals a possible fuller exploration by Amazon, of the messaging space, which has been a long-awaited move from the retail giant. It already has a video meeting service called Chime, which is becoming more popular. Recently Salesforce announced to integrate Chime into their cloud products.
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