Government Cloud (cloud.gov) provides the benefits of a cloud service to US government agencies. Cloud.gov provides a Platform as a Service (PaaS) capability that is compliant with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) security regulations. Additionally, agency-specific “Authority to Operate” (ATO) requirements are also accommodated. The cloud.gov PaaS is based on the open-source Cloud Foundry project, providing portability to other cloud providers or existing on-premise environments.
Why is Government Cloud Important?
The government cloud is essential because it provides a highly elastic and secure environment for Government Agencies to run their services for the public without worrying about procuring their own data centers and servers.
All federal agencies have a mandate to deploy products in the cloud. However, many agencies lack the skills and resources to tackle regulatory and compliance challenges. Cloud.gov provides a ready-built, open-source PaaS model that makes cloud adoption easier than going it alone. And the more widely it’s adopted, the more efficient it gets. Each agency can deliver more quickly and more securely with less effort.
The PaaS approach allows agencies to leave the cloud service provider to manage the network, servers, storage, and software infrastructure. Agencies use subscription-based pricing for the cloud infrastructure they need. The cloud platform provides additional resources as application demand increases and scales it back to save costs when demand is low. Agencies can guarantee their data is isolated from the public web service infrastructure and data never leaves US data centers.
Publishing Content on The Government Cloud
Agency developers can publish content on the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) certified platform pages hosted on cloud.gov. The security and compliance-verified site builder is fast, stable, and scalable. The content can be shared as a draft for review and approval processing.
An Amazon AWS S3 bucket provides storage for content, and tools are provided via GitHub to manage the site. For simplicity of management and security, the sites use no dynamic content. Templates provide a great starting point for site developers. Search.gov provides a search engine authorized for Government use and tools to scan for viruses on stored pages and live sites.
Tiered Pricing Models
There are four pricing levels associated with the government cloud. A storage subscription costs $130 per GB of RAM dedicated to the service.
Sandbox
The sandbox is a free service that allows agency development teams to deploy websites to assess the platform’s suitability for their applications.
Prototyping
The prototyping tier is licensed to an entire agency for $1,550 monthly. This tier is intended for testing websites in a non-production environment.
FISMA Low
Agencies can share public documents for $2,070 per month using FISMA Low. Agencies get assigned their dedicated domain names. However, no service availability and confidentiality assurances are given at this level.
FISMA Moderate
This tier costs $2,070 per month and is for production website deployments. Agencies can request their preferred domain names. Assurances are provided for confidentiality, integrity, and service availability.
Live Government Cloud Websites
Below are examples of prominent websites hosted on cloud.gov, which has grown to over 100 sites with more than 140,000 visitors daily.
CIO.GOV
CIO.gov is where the CIO Council forum, a body composed of Federal Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Their goal is to improve IT practices across US government agencies. CIO.gov is where they share priorities, key technology policies, news, and events. Topics discussed include cybersecurity, cloud, technology management, and effective data usage.
Vote.gov
Vote.gov makes it easier for eligible voters to participate in the US democratic process by providing streamlined information on where and how to vote.
Department of the Interior
The Department of the Interior’s Natural Resources Revenue site provides data about how the government manages federal energy and mineral resources, revenue, and disbursements. The website delivers valuable data to policy experts.
College Scorecard
The Department of Education uses Pages to host College Scorecard, a website that provides visitors with important information on everything from financial aid to expected earnings.
Centers of Excellence
This website supports the GSA’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) program, which is tasked with accelerating the modernization of IT infrastructure across the government.
FedRAMP
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring of cloud products and services.
Key Benefits for Developers
Some of the many reasons agencies choose to host on the Government Cloud, include:
- Agencies can deploy sites from a GitHub repository in minutes.
- Accessible 508-compliant website templates accelerate designs with accessibility built-in.
- Deployment tools such as 11ty, Hugo, Gatsby, and Jekyll provide the ability to automate CI/CD.
- Integrated version control for real-time publishing enables change management.
- Collaboration across agencies is facilitated through source code sharing with GitHub. This capability aids reusability so new users can ramp up quickly.
- Compliance is eased by using the FedRAMP-certified cloud.gov platform and Amazon Web Services GovCloud infrastructure.
- Security is provided by multiple levels of authentication, vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.
Actian Data Platform
The Actian Data Platform provides data management from source to analysis by automating data pipelines and managing data flow to its analytics data warehouses. The Actian Data Platform supports multi-cloud and on-premise hybrid deployments. The speed of analytics and built-in data integration make Actian stand out in the data management industry.