HP Enterprise Services has become the second CSP (cloud service provider) to announce it has passed Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) protocols to get the official US government cloud security stamp.

Amazon, as you’d probably expect, led the way by announcing its FedRAMP seal of approval last week.  So what’s that stomping sound you’re hearing? It’s all the public cloud competition rushing to catch up…

With FedRAMP compliance, federal organisations can instantly assess whether a CSP’s solution works for them, as well as increase levels of consistency and attainment in cloud security.

That’s the theory, at least. The FedRAMP official website lists a series of ‘program goal’ bullet points which includes “accelerat[ing] the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assessments and authorisations”, increase[ing] confidence in security of cloud solutions”, as well as an increase in automation and near …