On December 27, 2012 the General Services Administration (GSA) announced the first company to become FedRAMP certified as Autonomic Resources. The approval came from the Joint Authorization Board (JAB), which is consisting of the CIO’s from GSA, DoD, and DHS.

As of recently, no cloud solution provider has been endorsed by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). Run by the GSA, FedRAMP is designed to assist in closing costly federal data centers and outsourcing network operations to shared cloud providers, thereby reducing expenditures and increasing technical flexibility. FedRAMP provides a security evaluation that certifies cloud providers in being able to adequately and safely manage electronic federal data. By gaining the FedRAMP approval vendors can offer their cloud services for immediate use in any government agency. However, due to confusion and a slow evaluation process, no vendors have been endorsed by FedRAMP to date.

According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for the third year in a row, Federal contract spending decreased. While spending $537 billion in contracts in fiscal year 2011, the government spent just $513 billion in fiscal 2012, marking the largest single-year dollar decrease on record. The decreases are a result of a “concerted and collaborative effort on behalf of all the agencies,” said Joe Jordan, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Recent actions indicate the government has undoubtedly moved away from the increasing period between 2000 and 2008. The Federal government even surpassed its goal of reaching a 15% reduction on management and support services by the end of fiscal 2012. The OMB has created a leadership council in which all agencies will have a designated official responsible for the new cost cutting initiatives. Within the agenda the OMB has also developed the Interagency Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council whose first task is to recommend to the administration management strategies that will ensure government procurement of the best possible pricing and quality goods, services, commodities, and contracts. Though concerns exist on whether the newfound council will be more bureaucracy, the OMB should now be a willing partner in the legislative reform effort in which progress is finally being made to resolve the inefficient and wasteful government contracts.

As we close out 2012, it appears that the Feds will be making an early New Year’s resolution – proactive reformation of their network security and monitoring. According to a spokesman at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a Request for Proposal (RFP) for continuous monitoring of IT assets and data will be put out by the department in the near future. The application of a secure, total Business Service Management (BSM) solution, while currently only at DHS, is being planned to spread across the entire government.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) unveiled on November 27, 2012 a dashboard that consolidates all Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) spending from 2004 through present date. The data that is shown is all of the non-classified data on federal IT purchases that have been purchased using task orders under the various GWACs. The dashboard also allows searches on small business specific contracting vehicles like 8(a)STARS; 8(a) STARS II; Alliant; Alliant SB; and VETS GWAC programs.

With sequestration looming just over the horizon, IT companies are competing now more than ever for contracting opportunities. The anticipated funding cuts, which are set to take place in January 2013, have many contractors panicking. As a result, we suggest the following tips: “1) Making the most of stretched 2012 opportunities; 2) Determining what’s possible under 2013 plans; and 3) finding out what carries into 2014 coupled with brand new initiatives in the upcoming 2014 budget request.” (http://washingtontechnology.com) IT contractors should also have an “understanding [of] how the internal budget plumbing works as agencies map expenditures to the spending authority granted by Congress.” Thus, it is important to not “overlook crosscutting management initiatives that can pull money from multiple program buckets, including across agencies, even under a continuing resolution.”