Government agencies require the agility and cost-effectiveness of a compliant public cloud environment to accomplish their missions more effectively and efficiently. That’s why this past summer, VMware initiated a private beta program for VMware vCloud Government Service provided by Carpathia to begin testing and validating its practical value for government agencies.

To date, vCloud Government Service is being tested in civilian, defense, law enforcement and other Federal IT environments. Due to the progress those organizations are making, VMware is launching an Early Access Program, inviting US federal government agencies to preview our enterprise-class hybrid cloud service for their cloud applications requiring a FedRAMP Authority to Operate (ATO). This preview period provides agencies with the opportunity to prepare and test their applications while simultaneously pursuing their own FedRAMP ATO.

Government IT executives are often not comfortable with the risk, cost, and time often required to achieve this compliance. Many early federal public cloud efforts, while well intentioned, threaten to become cloud-based versions of the incompatible IT silos they were meant to eliminate, since they are based on entirely new architectures and processes.

Since VMware announced its bid to secure a FedRAMP Provisional-ATO for vCloud Government Service in March, progress has been significant in building out the platform’s capabilities. The VMware vCloud Government Service Early Access Program will enable government agencies to better meet mission goals and service citizens with applications sooner, as well as be compliant and running when the service achieves its FedRAMP P-ATO next year.

Since vSphere is used extensively throughout the data centers of all 15 cabinet level agencies, military services and the Legislative and Judicial branches of government, the Public Sector team is excited to be able to bring vCloud Government Service – which is based on VMware’s award winning vSphere – to help government customers seamlessly extend their data centers to the cloud. vCloud Government Service provides an efficient, practical and lower-risk path to adopting cloud via resources and skills superior to those that exist in government today.

The VMware vCloud Government Service Early Access Program is available in Sterling, VA and Phoenix, AZ.