Why is it difficult for other commercial hosting companies and system integrators to support Federally compliant solutions (like ServerVault’s FCAP)?
Mostly, it’s a matter of economics and business focus. The majority of hosting companies and other organizations who are in the data center/managed hosting services businesses are driven by commercial customers and commercial revenues. As a result, the operating methodology, staffing model, and underlying tools and technology decisions of these companies are of a commercial-grade level. It is difficult, if not impossible for a hosting company to accommodate Federal Agency requirements within the same facility, with the same staff, and per the same operating model when:
- The compliance mandates are not fully understood by these companies, and are foreign in many respects to the commercial-grade service providers (for examples, click here)
- Successful delivery in most cases would require isolation from the rest of the hosting center business and operations, background checks of all employees who could access the systems, and separate delivery practices which translates to additional cost (less leveraging of the core capabilities) and higher delivery risk per the deviation from the standard operating model
- A continual improvement/updating of the compliance process is required, as he compliance landscape and individual Agency requirements are always maturing, and the hosting delivery model must be adaptable to accommodate these changes in a compliant way. This requires the Federally-compliant focus be a significant consideration in the on-going operational roadmap and execution plan.
Even large system integrators with global facilities and operational teams are faced with the challenge of accommodating these requirements. Yes, their presence in the government market is sizable, but paltry when compared to their commercial revenue base - and their data center facilities and operations support mostly commercial customers and are not built to support the Federal government’s requirements.
This is not to say that these companies do not have the capability to build a Federally-compliant service (for a particular customer and insulate this environment from the otherwise non-compliant elements of the business – but there certainly increased risk, cost and uncertainty with delivering in an area that is not consistent with their core operating model.
Unfortunately, the all-to-common end result of these situations are dissatisfied Government Agency customers and security and compliance officers, as well as frustrated managed hosting companies (or divisions of larger companies) who struggle to deliver hosted services
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