With agencies facing imminent deadlines under the 2012 Managing Government Records Directive, which aims to facilitate the transfer and storage of Federal electronic records, executives at Veritas Technologies are aiming to provide “turnkey” solutions to electronic record management. […]

Reacting to a battery of recent MeriTalk articles on GSA 18F and FedRAMP, voices inside and outside GSA have called for MeriTalk to name our source. Well, this time, we’re completely transparent. […]

The U.S. Air Force is talking to Congress about starting a multiyear, replenishable fund for cloud computing, according to Frank Konieczny, the chief technology officer of the Office of Information Dominance and chief information officer of the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Air Force. […]

Tony Summerlin, who helped write FedRAMP, said he envisioned the program as a much quicker and sleeker version of what it is today. He says speed is one of the biggest challenges to Federal initiatives across the board, not just in the application of FedRAMP. […]

Over the past few years, many government agencies have turned from doubting and distrusting the cloud to fully embracing its potential, according to Microsoft executives. […]

Recent cloud adoptions have enabled government agencies, both on the Federal and state and local levels, to process data much faster than before, and those cloud services are becoming easier to get, according to panelists at the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum. […]

Microsoft on Tuesday announced new advancements to its government cloud offerings, which will expand its ability to store Department of Defense data and increase the number of regions in which their data centers are available. […]

The General Services Administration announced that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Government was issued a Provisional Authority to Operate by the Joint Authorization Board on Sept. 22, the first product to receive one through the new FedRAMP Accelerated program. […]

FedRAMP needs to adopt a modular approach, according to many of the 41 chief information officers and IT officials that responded to the Professional Services Council’s 2016 Federal CIO Survey. […]

The storm clearly has not passed for some big programs run by the General Services Administration, including FedRAMP’s spending of $150,000 in taxpayer money to duplicate an online dashboard capability that had already been developed in the private sector and made available to the government for free….Also, Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, is back with another bill aimed at IT modernization. […]

Facing criticism that $150,000 was spent to create a FedRAMP dashboard virtually identical to the existing FedRAMP OnRamp dashboard, the General Services Administration said that the new dashboard performs unique functions and that it has processes in place to ensure that systems are not unnecessarily duplicated. […]

Federal agencies can now use cloud computing systems to store their most sensitive, unclassified data, through the recent release of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Baseline.
“This release allows agencies to use cloud environments for high-impact data, including data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin,” said the FedRAMP announcement. […]

In a review of its progress over the past nine months compared with the four years before that, the GSA released an infographic touting the increases in authorizations, re-uses, and use frequency of cloud service providers. […]

Less than three months after a wave of negative feedback from industry forced the General Services Administration to revamp the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, a new MeriTalk survey shows for the first time that many government IT officials doubt the value of the program in its current form. […]

Content management company Box unveiled its Box for Government initiative, which brings together different product suites designed for government and enables agencies to work remotely, collaboratively, and with an assurance of security. Box for Government has already received a FedRAMP Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) from the Defense Information Systems Agency. […]

If cloud computing is the future of government information technology, then Cisco may be one of the most relevant companies in Washington, D.C. Cisco’s FedRAMP authorization—granted by the Department of Health and Human Services—represents a significant development for both the company and the government. […]

Cloud computing offers the most security for government data, argued Homeland Security CIO of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Mark Schwartz, at the Akamai Government Forum. […]

Microsoft Azure was selected for a FedRAMP pilot program that will establish a high-impact baseline for cloud-computing services. This essentially allows Federal agencies to move more sensitive data onto contracted cloud-computing services, enabling the sensitive data to operate on the more technically advanced level that is already possible for low-impact data. […]

A representative of a Federal cloud computing industry advisory group filed a formal complaint this week with the General Services Administration’s inspector general alleging officials from FedRAMP issued veiled threats of retaliation against member companies that publicly voiced concerns about problems with the cloud security certification process. […]

A “fireside chat” brought the heat to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Members of the Cloud Computing Caucus delivered a scathing review of the FedRAMP certification process, but also strong words of advice, to a roomful of Federal workers and private contractors at the Fix FedRAMP forum. […]

The Commerce Department is looking for a Deputy CIO and a CTO. … Andy Purdy, the former acting director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division who recently became the chief security officer of Huawei Technologies USA, is now the vice chairman of the Open Group Trusted Technology Forum. … And the FedRAMP Program Management Office held a very efficient all-hands meeting. […]

The Federal government is the leading creator, collector, consumer, and communicator of information in the United States. If there are changes to its regulatory requirements, it is possible those changes will eventually spread into the commercial sector. Here’s what that sector needs to know. […]

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden’s new book, Playing To The Edge: American Intelligence In The Age Of Terror, raises tough questions about the Obama administration’s lack of support for the agency following the Edward Snowden revelations. Also, the GSA’s in-house innovation lab, known as 18F, is expanding its consulting services. But is that somehow crossing a line? […]

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