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GSA Releases FedRAMP JAB Charter

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The General Services Administration released the charter for the FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB), a major component to the federal government’s plan for quickly adopting cloud computing technologies.

The charter is aimed at defining the authority, objectives, membership, roles and responsibilities, meeting schedule, decision making requirements and establishment of committees for FedRAMP jab in accordance with OMB mandates.

The JAB will provide the technical knowledge and skills that gives a government-wide baseline approach to address the security needs associated with placing federal data in cloud computing solutions.

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Additionally, the JAB will provide joint provisional security authorizations of cloud solutions using this baseline approach. This provisional authorization will create an authorization package that can be leveraged by individual agencies across the Federal Government to grant an Authority to Operate at their respective organizations, according to the document.

The JAB will consist of the chief information officers from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and GSA, along with official designees of each of those offices and the program’s program management officer within GSA.

All decisions must be agreed upon by a majority of the members who may establish standing councils and working groups as necessary, the document said.

FedRAMP aims to reduce duplicative efforts, inconsistencies and cost inefficiencies associated with the current security authorization process. The program will also establish a public-private partnership to promote innovation and the advancement of more secure information technologies.

By using an agile and flexible framework, FedRAMP will enable the Federal Government to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing by creating transparent standards and processes for security authorizations and allowing agencies to leverage security authorizations on a government-wide scale.

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FedRAMP was first announced in 2010 as part of the Office of Management and Budget’s 25-Point Plan to Reform Federal IT, authored by former Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and now OMB Acting Director Jeff Zients.

The White House released a memorandum in December outlining the program that Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said will save the government 30 to 40 percent on cloud computing costs.

Fedramp Jab Charter Signed

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