CHICAGO – April 29, 2025 – Parallel Works, provider of the ACTIVATE control plane for hybrid multi-cloud computing resources, today announced the launch of ACTIVATE High Security Platform, a hybrid, multi-cloud platform for national security workloads.
Simultaneously, Parallel Works announced that the platform has achieved Impact Level 5 (IL5) Provisional Authorization (PA) at the Department of Defense (DoD), granted by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) — clearing the way for secure deployment of mission-critical workloads across DoD and defense contractor environments.
The company said this positions ACTIVATE High Security Platform as the first IL5-authorized hybrid, multi-cloud computing platform capable of securely supporting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) workloads across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Defense Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRCs).
“This authorization reflects nearly three years of collaboration with the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), DIU and DISA to meet the DoD’s most stringent security standards,” said Matthew Shaxted, CEO of Parallel Works. “The ACTIVATE High Security Platform is available today and removes the barriers to secure, elastic HPC access, giving defense teams the flexibility to deploy wherever their mission demands.”
The IL5 designation allows U.S. Government agencies and defense contractors to immediately leverage ACTIVATE High Security Platform to run AI training, real-time simulation, and mission-critical analytics across hybrid, multi-cloud environments and DSRCs. With IL5 compliance built in, organizations can bypass years of security reviews and save millions in authorization costs – expediting time to operational readiness.
As the DoD advances toward AI-enabled operations, model-based engineering, and digital modernization – driven by the need for hybrid computing elasticity, secure model sharing, and CUI / ITAR-capable cloud workflows – the ACTIVATE High Security Platform provides the compute infrastructure to power high-fidelity simulations, machine learning, and rapid development cycles.
DIU Program Manager and Navy Lieutenant Commander, Al Williams noted that, “The ability to combine the DoD’s high-performance compute and share loads with cloud-based high-performance compute is something that only the commercial sector can provide today. We’re delighted that DIU was able to help HPCMP add two new-to-DoD vendors with this capability.”
With ACTIVATE High Security Platform DoD users and integrators can now:
- Inherit a Fully Accredited IL5 Environment – Streamline Authority to Operate (ATO) processes with an inheritance-ready security package audited by Fortreum.
- Burst Across Clouds and DSRCs – Dynamically deploy performance tuned clusters on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, alongside the on-premises DSRC sites for hybrid compute workflows, while controlling costs uniformly at a ~3-minute resolution.
- Mission-Critical Scalability – Enable on-demand access to scalable, IL5-compliant resources, reducing compute delays from weeks to minutes, essential for mission critical weather forecasting, autonomous system development, and AI experimentation.
“The Department of Defense depends on rapid, secure access to advanced computing resources to drive innovation across scientific, engineering, and operational missions,” said Keith Obenschain, Chief Technology Officer for the DoD HPCMP. “Our teams can now use secure, scalable hybrid-cloud compute when appropriate to accelerate workflows for mission-critical projects.”
Authorized as a Software-as-a-Service / Platform-as-a-Service (SaaS/PaaS) offering, ACTIVATE High Security Platform enables users to provision secure, elastic resources across cloud and supercomputing environments through a unified control plane. All operations within the ACTIVATE boundary meet or exceed IL5 requirements, including the full FedRAMP High baseline and DoD-specific controls.
As the first hybrid, multi-cloud platform to achieve IL5 PA, ACTIVATE High Security Platform supports AWS today, with Google Cloud and Azure coming soon. It offers the fastest path to ATO for DoD users, contractors and integrators, with seamless DSRC integration, built-in orchestration and infrastructure-as-code tailored for mission-ready workloads.
The initial deployment will be led by HPCMP, making ACTIVATE High Security Platform available as a shared service on NIPRnet. Other DoD agencies and defense contractors can inherit the DISA PA to deploy their own secure platforms – eliminating redundant compliance efforts.
Designed specifically for DoD agencies and mission teams, ACTIVATE High Security Platform also supports defense contractors managing CUI and ITAR data, national laboratories and AI/ML researchers and system integrators modernizing secure infrastructure.
“We’re excited to bring Parallel Works’ ACTIVATE High Security Platform to our government customers,” said Natalie Gregory, Vice President at Carahsoft. “Agencies and integrators can now access an IL5-authorized, hybrid-cloud HPC platform with minimal technical overhead. ACTIVATE High Security Platform makes it faster and easier than ever to deploy secure, scalable computing for mission-critical workloads.”
By bridging security and scalability, ACTIVATE High Security Platform empowers the DoD and its partners to move faster, collaborate freely and solve some of the national toughest challenges with mission-ready compute.
