DISA Ready to Act as Commercial Cloud Broker for All of Defense

The Defense Information Systems Agency said Tuesday that it has the framework in place to act as the cloud computing broker for the Defense Department, a job Defense Chief Information Officer Teri Takai assigned the agency in June 2012.

DISA said it has performed cybersecurity assessments of two commercial cloud services that have been granted Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program status to offer cloud services, but did not name the providers. Approval of these two commercial cloud services for information OK’d for public release is imminent, according to DISA. The agency continues to conduct security assessments to expand alternatives for future cloud service offerings.

DISA also is developing model contract language that supports use of commercial cloud services.

Meanwhile, last Tuesday Navy CIO Officer Terry Halvorsen directed the Navy and Marine Corps to use to commercial cloud service providers to host publicly releasable information. He said the Navy could not use DISA as a broker because “the broker concept is still being developed by DoD and is not fully in place.” Halvorsen added, “Pending further guidance from the DoD CIO, the [Navy] must move forward and employ capable solutions that meet mission and security requirements and provide the best value.”

Nextgov reported on Feb. 4 that Autonomic Resources and CGI Federal have won approval from the General Services Administration, which manages FedRAMP, to offer commercial cloud services to federal agencies.