# Cloud Accounts

> Source: https://parallelworks.com/docs/organization-admin/cloud/cloud-accounts

# Cloud Accounts

## What Is a Cloud Account?

A cloud account is ACTIVATE's unified concept for connecting to and managing infrastructure on a cloud service provider (CSP). Each cloud account represents a set of credentials and configuration that links your CSP environment to ACTIVATE, allowing you to provision networks, manage billing, control access, and run compute workloads -- all from a single interface.

Cloud accounts are managed at the organization level. Once a cloud account is added, it becomes available for network provisioning, billing configuration, and access sharing with groups within your organization.

## Supported Cloud Service Providers

ACTIVATE supports the following cloud service providers:

- **Amazon Web Services (AWS)** -- authenticated via access keys
- **Microsoft Azure** -- authenticated via service principal client secrets
- **Google Cloud** -- authenticated via service account keys
- **OpenStack** -- authenticated via application credentials

:::info Feature Flag

**Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)** is available as a feature-flagged provider. Contact your ACTIVATE administrator to enable Oracle Cloud support for your organization.

:::

## Cloud Account Lifecycle

Setting up a cloud account follows these general steps:

1. **Prepare your CSP** -- Configure the necessary roles, permissions, and credentials in your cloud provider. See the CSP-specific preparation guides in [Managing Cloud Accounts](/docs/organization-admin/cloud/cloud-accounts/managing-cloud-accounts) for details.
2. **Add the cloud account** -- Register the cloud account in ACTIVATE by providing your CSP credentials. ACTIVATE will verify that the credentials have sufficient permissions.
3. **Create networks** -- Provision the networking infrastructure (VPCs, subnets, route tables, etc.) that clusters will be deployed on. See [Networks](/docs/organization-admin/cloud/cloud-accounts/networks) for details.
4. **Provision billing** -- Set up billing infrastructure so that ACTIVATE can track and report on cloud spend. See [Billing](/docs/organization-admin/cloud/cloud-accounts/billing) for details.
5. **Configure access** -- Share the cloud account with specific groups in your organization. See [Access Control](/docs/organization-admin/cloud/cloud-accounts/access-control) for details.

## GovCloud and Assured Workloads

ACTIVATE supports government-specific cloud environments for the following providers:

- **AWS GovCloud** -- isolated AWS regions designed to host sensitive data and regulated workloads
- **Azure Government** -- Microsoft's cloud environment for US government agencies and their partners
- **Google Assured Workloads** -- compliance-focused workload configurations for regulated industries

When adding a cloud account for one of these providers, you can enable the GovCloud option to ensure ACTIVATE provisions resources in the appropriate government regions.

## Naming Convention

Cloud account names must use **lowercase letters and numbers only**. Special characters, spaces, and uppercase letters are not permitted. Choose a descriptive name that identifies the CSP and purpose of the account, as the name cannot be changed after creation.