Cisco's UCM Cloud for Government Creates Secure Solution for Government Agencies
In this article
WWT supports cloud collaboration solution that meets government security mandates.
IT security is always a top concern for government agencies, which is why moving a piece of their operations into the cloud can be a very tricky tightrope to walk. Government agencies have an extra layer of security regulation that is part and parcel of being in the public sector.
Compliance may protect these agencies from harm, but it also sometimes acts as a roadblock stymieing efforts to adopt far more effective yet riskier technologies like cloud services. The security hoops they need to clear can delay a migration, drive up costs, limit the options they have to choose from, and end up creating more complexity that invalidates any benefit from having a hosted service in the cloud.
Government agencies may be starting to realize this harsh reality. According to an IDC study, federal investment in cloud computing has dropped 17.2 percent across all types of cloud solutions. This follows multiple years of double-digit growth.
What is particularly evident is that the same cloud service adopted by Fortune 500 companies is not the same cloud service government agencies need. The latter has a higher security threshold to meet, but they don't want that oversight to harm the speed and flexibility that comes from managing their day-to-day operations as-a-service.
A collaboration solution compliant with government requirements
Cisco realized this need and recently announced a new, hosted collaboration solution (UCM Cloud for Government) that is tailored for the public sector. The solution is fully compliant with the government's "cloud-first" mandate, meeting FedRAMP® authorization for protecting data and privacy under current government security regulations and policies.
UCM Cloud for Government offers industry-leading Cisco collaboration services including voice, video, instant messaging, presence and conferencing service all on one integrated platform. These services are compatible with a broad portfolio of voice and video devices from IP phones to mobile and desktop applications. Taken together, UCM Cloud for Government empowers government workers with the freedom to collaborate how and when they want on the device of their choice. It turns a large bureaucracy into a nimble and flexible operation where people and assets are always within reach. Because it is hosted in the Cisco cloud, agencies can shift to a capital expenditures (CapEx) model, paying only for what they use and scaling that use up and down according to their needs at any particular time.
World Wide Technology (WWT) is proud to be delivering this solution to our federal clients. We are the best equipped through our Advanced Technology Center (ATC) and our collaboration practice to give the special validation government agencies need. We work hand in hand with them to sketch a clear definition of what they want to do with collaboration. From there we can workshop, assess, design and implement the right flavor of collaboration into their existing IT architecture. By recreating their operational environments in our ATC, we can run multiple scenarios to arrive at a customized implementation that balances security, flexibility and innovation.