Precisely, the global leader in data integrity has announced that its Data Integrity Suite Data Governance Service has begun the FedRAMP authorisation process. The suite is now in process, at the Agency review stage. It means the solution now has a listing on the FedRAMP marketplace. Federal government agencies are more likely to consider the solutions as they look to build a Data governance platform. Precisely are targeted at a moderate status. The deployment model is Government Community Cloud.
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®) was established in 2011 to provide a cost-effective, risk-based approach for the adoption and use of cloud services by the federal government. FedRAMP empowers agencies to use modern cloud technologies with an emphasis on the security and protection of federal information. In December 2022, the FedRAMP Authorization Act was signed as part of the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Act codifies the FedRAMP program as the authoritative standardized approach to security assessment and authorization for cloud computing products and services that process unclassified federal information.
For organisations completing the FedRAMP process, it can open a lot of doors to federal agencies.
Emily Washington, Senior Vice President, Product Management at Precisely, commented, “With the rise of advanced analytics and AI adoption, it’s never been a more important time for government agencies to ensure they are making confident decisions based on accurate, consistent, and contextual data.
“This milestone with FedRAMP allows Precisely to accelerate robust data governance programs across federal and state government agencies, helping them to effectively address compliance risk, overcome data quality challenges, and enhance collaboration across both technical and non-technical personnel.”
Why Precisely can make a difference?
The Data Governance service is just one of seven interoperable services within the Precisely Data Integrity Suite, underpinned by the Data Catalog as a foundational element. The seven elements are:
- Data Integration
- Data Observability
- Data Governance
- Data Quality
- Geo Addressing
- Spatial Analytics
- Data Enrichment
What is a little surprising is that Precisely has not targeted more of the suite’s services as part of this initiative. No doubt others will follow at some point. Recent research from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) highlighted the importance of data integrity. It listed ten priorities for State CIOs:
- Cybersecurity and risk management
- Digital Government/Digital Services
- AI/ML/RPA
- Legacy Modernisation
- Workforce
- Data Management/Data Analytics
- Broadband/Wireless connectivity
- Identity and Access Management
- Cloud Services
- CIO as a broker/new operating model
Of these, Precisely called out three priorities that the Data Integrity Suite can support: data management and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and the delivery of improved digital services. In addition, Access Management also requires a robust data management capability. With impact level Moderate applicable to many agencies and only one level short of the highest level.
Despite Data management and analytics having been a priority for at least 8 years, there is a rich market for Precisely to target. As 69% of respondents see their data governance strategies as nascent.
Data governance is a key part of a data integrity strategy. The Precisely platform, proven in private companies, can now help government agencies to easily locate, understand, trust, and leverage critical data. In turn, trusted data is required to leverage and trust the outputs of AI already in use across multiple agencies.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
With the FedRAMP authorisation process underway, Precisely is building out its collateral to support a push into the US government agencies. With the FedRAMP listing and existing public sector customers, it should see further penetration in the market. One State Agency is using Precisely Ironstream for Splunk. To help comply with an especially complex IRS regulation, “Tax Information Security Guidelines for Federal, State and Local Agencies”, as described in IRS Publication 1075. The agency is better able to recover millions of dollars of benefits that should not have been paid.
Precisely already has a listing on the Crown Commercial Service’s G-Cloud 13 Framework within the UK. Its FedRAMP listing should now mean that it can increase its customer base in the US Federal government. It is not a green field environment though. With other Data Governance solutions from the likes of Alation and Informatica also listed. The certification process can take up to two years. Precisely will need to identify a partner to work with it through the process.
Once complete, it will be interesting to see how quickly it adds other elements of its suite to FedRAMP. For interested agencies, Precisely will attend the AWS Summit Washington DC from June 26-27, where leaders can learn more about the Data Integrity Suite.
