HHS Grants Salesforce.com ATO for Government Cloud

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today granted Salesforce.com (CRM) an Authority to Operate (ATO) its Government Cloud, which includes both platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Salesforce will be able to support government organizations that “are looking to achieve the significant cost, agility and innovation benefits of cloud computing,” according to the company.

Public sector organizations can leverage the ATO, the company said, and use traditional, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications from Salesforce.

These organizations can use the Salesforce1 Platform to customize and extend their applications or build new apps within the same cloud.

Salesforce also noted government organizations can develop and run applications over the Internet.

Other Salesforce Government Cloud features include:

“Government organizations need to be assured that their IT solutions are safe, reliable and trustworthy,” Dave Rey, Salesforce’s senior vice president of public sector, said in a prepared statement. “With HHS’s authorization and our new Government Cloud, Salesforce.com will give government organizations one location for all their cloud solutions. We are helping to build a connected government.”

Salesforce plans to launch its Government Cloud next month.