U.S. General Services Administration
FedRAMP Accelerated
On Monday, the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) brought together over 400 cloud services providers (CSPs), third party assessors (3PAOs), and federal officials at GSA’s headquarters and via livestream to unveil FedRAMP Accelerated, a new faster authorization process with the Joint Authorization Board (JAB).
FedRAMP Accelerated will reduce the time it takes CSPs to earn FedRAMP authorization by 75 percent — in as little as 3 months, without compromising the program’s rigorous security standards.
Under FedRAMP Accelerated, CSPs will work with a 3PAO to obtain a readiness capabilities assessment to begin the process. The assessment will then be used by the FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO) to determine if a CSP has the right capabilities to go through FedRAMP. If so, that CSP will earn a FedRAMP Ready designation. The JAB will then review vendors who are designated as FedRAMP Ready will be reviewed and prioritized for authorizations with the JAB.
A FedRAMP Ready designation will not be required for providers who are looking to earn an ATO through an agency. Additionally, the new FedRAMP Ready will replace the CSP Supplied path. The Readiness Capabilities Assessment is out for public comment through April 29th. The PMO expects to finalize the requirements by June.
During the event Monday, Microsoft, Unisys and Cloud.gov discussed their excitement about being the first CSPs to test FedRAMP Accelerated. “[The new] up-front readiness assessment gives us predictability and consistency” as we go through the authorization process, said Unisys Vice President James Leake. The Cloud.gov lead, Bret Mogilefsky added, “Customers don’t want to wait around. The new process gives confidence in timelines.”
This new authorization process was created based on the feedback the FedRAMP PMO received over the last six months from federal agencies, CSPs, the Office of Management and Budget, 3PAOs, and the JAB.
The event held on Monday is the first in a series of stakeholder engagement events FedRAMP will hold in the coming year to continue to roll out the new authorization process and vet key elements of the new process with stakeholders.
For more information about FedRAMP Accelerated and to sign up for the FedRAMP newsletter, visit www.FedRAMP.gov. Also, follow the FedRAMP team on twitter via @FedRAMP, @MrFedRAMP, and @FedRAMPAshley.