FedRAMP Explained: Authorizations, Agencies, and the PMO

FedRAMP — the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program — is how cloud services get approved for use by U.S. federal agencies. Its motto is “do once, use many”: a service earns an authorization once, and agencies can reuse that authorization instead of each evaluating the service from scratch.

The players

• —The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) — the company seeking authorization for its offering.
• —The agency — the federal customer that authorizes and then uses the service.
• —The Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO) — the independent assessor that tests the system.
• —The FedRAMP PMO — the program office that maintains the standards and the marketplace.

What an authorization actually is

An Authorization to Operate (ATO) is a risk-based decision by an agency official that the residual risk of using a system is acceptable. It rests on a package of evidence — chiefly the System Security Plan, the assessment report, and a plan for remaining weaknesses.

Why it matters

For a CSP, FedRAMP is the gateway to the federal market. For an agency, it is assurance that a service has been independently evaluated against a consistent federal security baseline.