FedRAMP PMO Releases First Set of 3PAOs

Late today the FedRAMP Program Management Office released the first list of certified Third Party Assessment Organizations (3PAOs). These companies are accredited to perform initial and periodic assessment of cloud service provider (CSP) systems per FedRAMP requirements, provide evidence of compliance, and play an on-going role in ensuring CSPs meet requirements.  FedRAMP provisional authorizations must include an assessment by an accredited 3PAO to ensure a consistent assessment process. he initial set of 3PAOs announced today are (see http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/131991):

Organization	POC Name	POC Email
COACT, Inc.	Brian Pleffner	bpleffner@coact.com
Department of Transportation (DOT) Enterprise Service Center (ESC)	Douglas Holland	doug.holland@faa.gov
Dynamics Research Corporation (DRC)	Preston Gale	pgale@drc.com
J.D. Biggs and Associates, Inc.	James Biggs	james@jdbiggs.com
Knowledge Consulting Group, Inc.	Sherrie Nutzman	sherrie.nutzman@knowledgecg.com
Logyx LLC	Robert Dumais	rdumais@logyx.com
Lunarline, Inc.	Waylon Krush	waylon.krush@lunarline.com
SRA International, Inc.	William Bell	will_bell@sra.com
Veris Group, LLC	Douglas Greise	dgreise@verisgroup.com

In becoming a 3PAO, these companies successfully completed a NIST coordinated conformity assessment process. This conformity assessment process qualifies 3PAOs according to two requirements:

• Independence and quality management in accordance with ISO standards
• Technical competence through FISMA knowledge testing

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