As part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to integrate, promote and advance artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the Federal Risk and Authorization Program (FedRAMP 20x) will prioritize authorizing AI-based cloud services that provide federal workers with access to conversational AI engines.
Under the General Services Administration (GSA), projects receiving priority authorization must have demand within the government and are able to meet 20x pilot authorization requirements within two months. FedRAMP 20x was announced earlier this year as the next stage in accelerating cloud adoption. The program revolves around innovating methods to streamline automated authorization without compromising security.
The FedRAMP 20x program’s hinges on giving cloud providers a faster runway toward development and deployment by cutting through paperwork and slow bureaucratic processes. By simplifying and clarifying requirements, private companies will be able to more easily enact adequate security measures and get cloud services approved. Some of the key changes FedRAMP 20x makes to the process include:
- Removing the requirement for a federal agency sponsor for simple, low-impact services.
- Removing unnecessary or duplicative paperwork.
- Offering turn-key adoption for simple, cloud-native environments.
- Establishing easy-to-implement security requirements.
- Accelerating authorization to weeks instead of years for most cloud offerings.
The priority authorization will accelerate how quickly the federal government will procure and adopt advanced AI capabilities, boosting its overall operational efficiency and innovation. FedRAMP has already added 124 new authorized cloud services to the marketplace since the start of the year, with more projected additions on the way.
The FedRAMP 20x initiative is the latest effort by the federal government to drive AI development, innovation and integration, building on the President Donald Trump’s “AI Action Plan” to rapidly deploy AI solutions across all branches. The program has already authorized four new cloud services through the first phase of its pilot program. In addition, in early August, GSA launched a generative AI evaluation suite, titled USAi, enabling agencies to experiment with and adopt AI at scale.
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