HP Secures FedRAMP JAB Authorization for Managed Cloud Services

It seems as though there is about to be a steady stream of vendors announcing they have met the requirements of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for their cloud services. The latest, following an announcement by Amazon Web Services last week, is from HP Enterprise Services, which announced the Joint Authorization Board (JAB) of FedRAMP has granted HP Enterprise Cloud Services’ Virtual Private Cloud (ECS-VPC) offering status.

For HP (HPQ), this provides a bigger entry into the public sector with its cloud services. FedRAMP is a U.S. federal government initiative to accelerate security assessments, authorizations and adoption of cloud solutions within its various departments and agencies. The provisional Authority to Operate (pATO) that HP earned is the result of a rigorous testing standard for cloud service provider security from three of the largest federal agencies.

With the FedRAMP authorization in place, any agency can now use HP’s ECS-VPC offering without having to duplicate the vetting and assessment process. Basically, HP is good to go to sell into federal agencies that are ramping up their own cloud initiatives.

“The high sensitivity of the data stored in the cloud requires government CIOs and IT managers to adopt cloud solutions that are trustworthy, reliable and consistent,” said Marilyn Crouther, senior vice president and general manager of U.S. Public Sector at HP Enterprise Services, in a prepared statement. “FedRAMP authorization represents a critical milestone in HP’s efforts to deliver a secure converged cloud to our U.S. government clients, helping us establish strong partnerships and increase clients’ confidence in the security of their cloud systems.”

The question that remains unanswered so far is exactly what this will mean for HP’s network of channel partners. Will this largely affect HP’s direct sales into the public sector, or will its VARs play a role in helping to bring HP-branded private cloud services to the federal government?

The basics of FedRAMP began in December 2011 as a way to save significant time and costs—essentially as a “do once, use many times” policy and process that enables U.S. federal agencies to onboard approved cloud services in a quick and secure manner.