Rancher Government Solutions Announces General Availability of IC Cloud Support for Classified Kubernetes Operations
RESTON, Va. – Rancher Government Solutions (RGS), the leader in secure, enterprise-grade Kubernetes and container management for the U.S. Government, announced the launch and General Availability (GA) of IC Cloud Support, a new capability purpose-built for government and military teams operating in classified cloud environments.
“Our customers in classified environments deserve the same operational simplicity and resiliency they get in commercial cloud,” said Adam Toy, CTO at RGS. “With IC Cloud Support, RGS brings that consistency to the most secure environments in government.”
Announced as a Technical Preview in March 2025, IC Cloud Support allows organizations working in airgapped or restricted regions of AWS to deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters without the need for access keys, custom API integrations, or manual provisioning workflows.
“Our customers in classified environments deserve the same operational simplicity and resiliency they get in commercial cloud,” said Adam Toy, Chief Technology Officer at RGS. “With IC Cloud Support, RGS brings that consistency to the most secure environments in government.”
Removing Longstanding Barriers in Classified Regions
Unlike commercial cloud environments, classified regions often restrict the creation of Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and secrets, rely on unique API endpoints, require custom certificate handling, and much more unique challenges. These differences have historically forced DevSecOps teams to hand-roll infrastructure, relying on importing clusters into the Rancher Manager or operating entirely outside of RGS’s provisioning model.
IC Cloud Support changes that. Using instance-level credentials and a hardened, differentiated build through Rancher Government, the offering lets users provision Kubernetes clusters directly in classified regions without the need for custom Software Development Kits (SDK), manual secrets, or degraded functionality.
Improvements in this official release include:
- Enhanced Provisioned Cluster Support for RKE2 and EKS in the Classified Cloud Regions
- Addition of the “Carbide Instance Credential”, which enables keyless authorized access with organizations native IAM roles
- Native compatibility with API Endpoints in the Classified Cloud Regions
- Continued Support for additional Classified Cloud Regions
- Improved Day-2 operations, including node management, certificate rotation, snapshot and restore, and encryption key rotation
- UI and UX Parity across AWS Commercial, GovCloud, and Classified Clouds
Designed for Mission-critical Classified Environments
Classified cloud users previously faced limitations and complexities when provisioning and importing clusters into Rancher Manager, restricting day-2 operations like scaling cluster nodes, shell access, automated rotation of cluster certificates and encryption keys, and cluster lifecycle management. IC Cloud Support brings these capabilities into parity with what users experience and expect from the commercial clouds.
IC Cloud Support is now available for all RGS customers via the customer portal. After downloading the latest Rancher Government build for Rancher Manager, users can deploy in classified regions by toggling the “Carbide Instance Credential”, during provisioning of the cluster.
For more information or questions about IC Cloud Support, contact us as [email protected]
About Rancher Government Solutions
Rancher Government is the essential mission IT stack, purpose-built for the U.S. government, giving agencies the unified infrastructure, edge superiority, and modern application capabilities required to achieve mission success. RGS supports all Rancher products with U.S.-based American citizens supporting programs across the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and Civilian Agencies.
For more information, go to: www.ranchergovernment.com
