When it comes to cloud computing, there are some terms such as efficient, scalable, and on-demand that are often used in the description. Sadly, the federal government is shy from using these same terms and does not want any association with them.

The Management and Budget Office of the White House made some changes to the Cloud First Policy in 2010. With the help of cloud computing, the White House goal was to help federal organizations to provide services faster and at a reasonable price.

However, there are a number of challenges that face cloud computing such untrustworthy and insecure environment: this is where FedRAMP comes to play.

FedRAMP has issued a few directives that all cloud service providers should adhere to, so as to ensure security is assured.  These requirements include incident monitoring, scanning, vulnerability, reporting, and logging.

It does not matter if your firm works with government agencies or not, there are a couple of benefits that come with FedRAMP's requirements. They include the following:

1. Sales potential

Thanks to FedRAMP, businesses can now apply for government tenders.  This is a good thing as it gives one a huge advantage over the CSPs that did not follow the same long procedure of assessment.

Even if you opt not to do business with the government, your business will still flourish even if you choose to work with CSPs that have been working under FedRAMP. This is also advantageous if you have partnered with a CSP that wants to bid for government RFP.

2. Risk management

When you prepare for FedRAMP, you will be exposing yourself to the vulnerabilities, and this will help you discover how they affect your system.

In addition, risk management also helps you know whether or not your risk ownership is worth it or not. Note that you should let your customers know about this so that they are not confused.

3. Unified compliance

The FedRAMP regulations are closely associated with industry standards such as COBIT, PCI, GLBA, ISO 27001, and HIPAA/HITECH. If followed in the right way, and if businesses prepare well for FedRAMP, they can be able to have a unified compliance.

The advantage of unified compliance prevents the duplication of assurance works between CSP and its customers, as well as regulations.

On the other hand, if it is not in your interest to apply for government tenders, then avoid spending your hard-earned money on certification for the sake of compliance.

FedRAMP's main goal is to centralize compliance. The institution is currently employing the “do once, use many” formula. However, the cost of achieving this is a bit high. However, for businesses, the best approach is to evaluate the company against the requirements stipulated by FedRAMP, and this will provide a reliable risk assessment.

However, for businesses and organizations that want to be part of the government's business operations directly or indirectly, should get ready to comply with FedRAMP standards.

Delegating the information

The process of complying with FedRAMP is very detailed and exhaustive at the same time. In fact, you need to ask for a hand to design your security infrastructure.  Also, you will need to partner with an assessment company to help you out.

However, before you look for help from third-party organizations, you first of all need to prepare yourself adequately.

Fortunately, FedRAMP has created a checklist to help businesses prepare as much as possible before seeking help from other places. As soon as you are done going through the checklist, you can now seek help from other organizations, to help you with the following process:

1. Organize your system

According to the FIPS 199 template, organize your system well to check whether or not the impact of your risk is high, moderate, or low.

2. Choosing and implementing security controls

With the help of NIST 800-53, choose the baseline controls that align with your organization’s standard. Use them and make a plan for implementation.

3. Draft a system security plan

A security plan features all the information on the first two stages and outlines the system boundaries as well.  As a matter of fact, this document is the first to be reviewed when there is an assessment by FedRAMP.

Note that the process of getting a FedRAMP certification is very lengthy and not every company is comfortable with such bureaucracy. However, if you prepare yourself well enough, and take the right steps, you will be one step ahead of your competitors, and you will eventually enjoy all the benefits that come with FedRAMP.

When a company aligns with COBIT, it can also align its controls with COSO. Compliance software typically has the gap analysis tools and the compliance dashboard to help provide control across various platforms and provides visuals of an organization’s gaps respectively.

Author Bio

Ken Lynch is an enterprise software startup veteran, who has always been fascinated about what drives workers to work and how to make work more engaging.

Ken founded Reciprocity to pursue just that. He has propelled Reciprocity's success with this mission-based goal of engaging employees with the governance, risk, and compliance goals of their company in order to create more socially minded corporate citizens.

Ken earned his BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.