Cloud choice in federal isn't a branding exercise — it's a compliance and data-gravity decision that cascades into your ATO package, your key management, and whether you can host the model you actually want to use. The two major hyperscalers both have FedRAMP High offerings, but they differ sharply on managed LLM access, IL5/IL6 coverage, and how much of your inheritance you actually get without paid-tier services.
These posts are written for engineers making real architectural calls: where to put the boundary, what to inherit, what to rebuild, and how to defend the choice in front of a contracting officer who has seen every vendor pitch before.