IBM is the latest entrant to the growing field of government clouds, the company announced that they received FedRAMP approval today. IBM’s SmartCloud for Government, infrastructure as-a-service cloud platform, has been granted Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board (JAB). With this approval, IBM’s SmartCloud for Government has achieved all the current critical security authorizations required by the government ahead of the June 2014 government deadline.
CivSource previously reported on similar efforts by both Microsoft and Verizon. The IBM cloud is now available on the GSA schedule, and is part of IBM’s established and dedicated Federal Data Centers (FDC) in Colorado and North Carolina. Numerous US Federal Agencies are already taking advantage of IBM’s secure and resilient cloud offerings leveraging ATO’s across DOD and Civilian.
IBM’s recently announced Federal Cloud Innovation Center will play a key role in helping clients maximize the benefits of the IBM cloud and data center environments. The center, which draws on expertise of more than 500 IBM professionals, will bring IBM’s cloud computing research efforts closer to federal agencies to develop specialized technologies and methods for building mission-ready clouds. A central focus of the center will be to work with the government to explore further the adoption of open standards and further develop the security protocols for cloud computing.
“Our research teams are exploring the next generation of cloud security and are committed to bringing further innovation to the government in this area,” said Anne Altman, general manager, IBM U.S. Federal.
