Snowflake Achieves Department of Defense IL5 Authorization, Furthering Position as the Trusted AI Data Cloud for Government and Defense Customers

April 10, 2025 at 09:01 AM EDT

Snowflake also launches dedicated United States Public Sector entity, reinforcing commitment to Federal, Defense, and aerospace customers

Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced it has achieved Department of Defense (DOD) Impact Level 5 (IL5) Provisional Authorization (PA) on AWS GovCloud US-West. This authorization enables Snowflake to offer IL5 authorized solutions to organizations requiring the highest levels of protection for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) within the DOD and related agencies. It also allows the DOD to leverage advanced data analytics, collaborate securely, and generate AI-driven insights on Snowflake's platform to enhance mission-critical operations, accelerate digital transformation initiatives, and achieve cognitive advantage. This milestone comes as Snowflake expands its government-focused operations with the launch of Snowflake Public Sector, Inc., a dedicated U.S. Public Sector subsidiary, emphasizing its commitment to serving Federal, Defense, State and local government, and education entities.

The IL5 PA from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) can be used by all agencies and military services within the DOD, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Combatant Commands. It also extends to industry mission partners and eligible State and Federal agencies seeking the secure data storage, collaboration, and analytics capabilities of Snowflake’s unified data platform.

“The Department of Defense’s mission to enhance readiness and drive innovation demands secure, data-centric solutions," said Matthew Rose, Head of Corporate Government Relations at Snowflake. "Achieving IL5 authorization underscores Snowflake’s commitment to providing these solutions to Servicemembers, customers, and industry partners. This milestone allows us to bring secure and efficient enterprise solutions to controlled unclassified workloads across the national security community, improving readiness, ensuring fiscal accountability, rebuilding the military and industrial base, and delivering the best systems available.”

With IL5, Snowflake will enable the DOD to modernize and accelerate their data cloud migration by protecting and sharing mission critical data across the cloud. This reinforces Snowflake’s commitment to compliance and support of the warfighter and DOD missions globally. With this authorization, the DOD will have access to enhanced data capabilities in support of operations that advance national security objectives. Example use cases include, but are not limited to:

Financial Management: World-class financial management that accelerates mission readiness by offering a unified budgeting source, near real-time insights, enhanced accountability, comprehensive reporting, and efficient cost management.
Enterprise Business Operations: Maximized business and enterprise workload performance through a fully managed, centrally governed, and efficiency-driven multi-cloud data platform.
Logistics & Supply Chain: Improved inventory management and operations through increased visibility, decision support, operational efficiency, and demand forecasting.
Cybersecurity: A holistic platform for unified data, near unlimited visibility, and powerful analytics which helps eliminate blind spots in security data, strengthens incident response through unified monitoring, and provides a comprehensive repository for all security data.
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Enrich data from publicly available sources to accelerate decision making, conduct policy research, gather sentiment analysis, and perform economic forecasting.

These use cases represent just a few of the many mission-critical applications where Snowflake's IL5 authorization can support the DOD and broader government operations. DOD customers can also leverage Snowflake's comprehensive platform capabilities, including built-in governance through Snowflake Horizon and advanced security features. The platform delivers extensive data storage, analysis, and support for AI/ML capabilities, all designed to support diverse workloads across the national security landscape.

Snowflake’s IL5 authorization comes on the heels of establishing Snowflake Public Sector, Inc., a subsidiary dedicated to serving customers in the Federal, State and local government, national security, and education sectors. The formation of this entity underscores Snowflake’s long-term commitment to investing in and addressing the unique needs of the Public Sector industry and will allow Snowflake to better serve customers in mission categories who deal with sensitive and highly controlled information that require clearances to support. By providing tailored solutions to meet the complex requirements of Government agencies and their partners, Snowflake is expanding how these organizations can better serve citizens and constituents.

Organizations interested in Snowflake's Government and Defense capabilities can begin leveraging these solutions immediately. Where eligible, current Snowflake customers can work with their account teams to enable IL5 capabilities, while new customers can connect with the Snowflake Public Sector team today.

Comments on the News from Snowflake Partners

"Booz Allen is dedicated to advancing the nation’s most critical defense and national security missions by leveraging cutting-edge technologies. Snowflake’s recent IL5 authorization marks a significant milestone, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership to deliver secure, scalable cloud solutions for our clients," said Graham Evans, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen.
"As Snowflake’s Master Government Aggregator®, Snowflake's IL5 authorization will enable us and our reseller partners to better serve our Defense customers and partners with the secure, enterprise-grade data capabilities they need. This advancement strengthens our ability to support the Defense ecosystem and deliver innovative solutions that accelerate mission success," said Craig P. Abod, Carahsoft President.
“Snowflake’s IL5 authorization expands our ability to serve defense agencies with secure, scalable solutions. This milestone will enable us to better support mission-critical operations and help accelerate the modernization of our national defense infrastructure,” said Roger Hill, principal, Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory, and Deloitte’s Defense, Security and Justice sector leader.
"Achieving IL5 authorization is a critical milestone for Snowflake, and as a mission partner, will be instrumental in our ability to serve defense agencies with the robust and compliant solutions they need to harness the full potential of their data in mission-critical environments,” said Susan Wedge, Managing Partner, U.S. Federal Market for IBM Consulting.
"We are partnering with Snowflake and other industry leaders to bring Llama's capabilities to U.S. government agencies in support of our national defense. Snowflake’s IL5 authorization is yet another step towards advancing America's technological edge and strengthening our national security," said Dave Wehner, Chief Strategy Officer at Meta.

Learn More:

Read more about how Snowflake’s IL5 authorization enables secure data solutions for Defense and Government customers' most sensitive unclassified information in this blog post.
Data mesh has become an increasingly popular approach to data management in recent years. Learn about how Snowflake enables the DOD to build a resilient data mesh in this white paper.
Connect with the Snowflake Public Sector team to explore how Snowflake supports Defense and Government initiatives.

About Snowflake

Snowflake makes enterprise AI easy, efficient and trusted. More than 11,000 companies around the globe, including hundreds of the world’s largest, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to share data, build applications, and power their business with AI. The era of enterprise AI is here. Learn more at snowflake.com (NYSE: SNOW).