Cloud

FedRAMP Accelerated Is the Result of Government Listening and Responding

FedRAMP continues to succeed. But when customers lodged a complaint, GSA responded quickly and efficiently.

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Ryan Petersen has worked in publishing for more than two decades, most of it spent creating award-winning content and strategy for CDW’s family of tech magazine brands. As editor-in-chief, he works with his team to develop compelling and useful industry-focused stories to share with the technology world. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys spending time with his children, traveling, online gaming, and following Iowa Hawkeye sports and Cubs baseball.

The General Services Administration recently announced changes to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), promising a new process that will simplify and speed up the government’s approval of cloud vendors.

While this is noteworthy on its own, the launch of FedRAMP Accelerated highlights a positive theme going on right now in federal IT: Government is listening and, more important, acting on what it hears.

Starting from a Solid Foundation

According to Director Matt Goodrich, FedRAMP is a success: In little more than three years, 63 cloud service providers and 41 third-party assessment organizations have provided cloud services to 24 agencies, including all cabinet-level departments.

That proves the process works. But talks with vendors and customers reveal that many have found the approval process to be too slow.

“When FedRAMP was first stood up, speed was not one of the goals,” said Goodrich at a March event announcing the launch of the accelerated program. “Our primary focus was security, avoiding hacks, avoiding breaches. But as we rethink the FedRAMP process, we know that it needs to be quicker, without sacrificing security standards.”

Streamlining the Process

As FedRAMP matured, the parties involved wanted to streamline a process that typically took more than a year to complete. FedRAMP Accelerated aims to do just that, reducing the approval time to less than six months while maintaining security.

“FedRAMP has been an incredibly successful program, but we are at a point now where we can make it more effective,” said Goodrich.

FedRAMP Accelerated shows a lot of promise, but more important, the process GSA used to gain feedback and quickly act on it is just as impressive.

Listening goes a long way. That’s a lesson everyone can benefit from.

Learn more about FedRAMP Accelerated online at fedtechmagazine .com/Accelerated.

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