Carpathia Launches Federal Cloud Initiative

Here’s yet another move in the emerging government market for managed services and cloud computing: Carpathia Hosting is rolling out a line of managed hosting solutions for federal agencies and launching a business unit to focus on those customers. Here are the details and some moves worth watching.

The latest activity stems from Carpathia’s September 2009 acquisition of ServerVault, a managed hosting firm with a large federal business. Both companies are based in Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs. Carpathia had been doing some government business prior to the deal, but performed most of its work in the commercial sector.

Carpathia offers colocation, managed services, cloud computing, and professional services. Carpathia’s idea is to provide hybrid deployments that let customers move from “colocation to managed services into the cloud and back, based on … their fluctuating needs,” said Seth Finkel, general manager of Carpathia Government Solutions.

Finkel said Carpathia also aims to differentiate itself through its compliance focus. The company’s facilities adhere to the Federal Information Security Management Act and Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Process/Defense Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DITSCAP/DIACAP) guidelines, according to the company.

Carpathia’s government customer base includes the Defense Department and intelligence communities as well as civilian agencies. As for new opportunities, Carpathia is pursuing the General Services Administration’s infrastructure as a service (IaaS) procurement, partnering with other companies. The IaaS deal is part of the government’s cloud computing thrust, which includes the Apps.gov storefront.

Carpathia has ties to one vendor already offering services through Apps.gov: Carahsoft Technology. Carahsoft represents Carpathia on its GSA schedule contract, a government-wide sales vehicle.  Carahsoft resells solutions such as Salesforce.com’s SaaS wares through Apps.gov and the GSA schedule.

“We see a very compelling opportunity to bring managed services and managed infrastructure enablement to the various applications that comprise the Apps.gov framework,” Finkel said.

Overall, Finkel said he sees increased interest among government entities in managed services and cloud computing, particularly in such areas as test and development environments.

“The driving market dynamic is truly cost savings,” he said.

Contributing blogger John Moore covers Master MSPs, Web hosts and emerging opportunities. Follow MSPmentor via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; and Twitter. And sign up for our Enewsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center.