Archive for the 'FISMA Compliance' Category

Up and to the Right: Layered Tech advances in Gartner Magic Quadrant

Published on May 15, 2013 in Cloud Computing, Compliant Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, FISMA Compliance, HIPAA Compliance, Hosting Industry, Industry Expert, Layered Technologies and PCI Compliance. 0 Comments
Posted by Kevin Van Mondfrans

Gartner recently published the 2013 edition of the Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting which included Layered Tech. Since our first inclusion in 2010, Layered Tech has significantly increased our ranking and position with respect to completeness of vision and ability to execute. We have consistently moved up and to the right.

To be considered for the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting, providers must deliver on-demand, enterprise-class managed hosting services, have a presence in multiple North American metropolitan areas, and be among the top 15 North American providers by market share. Gartner’s quadrant-based categories rate providers by “vision” – the ability to anticipate and meet customer needs – and by service-delivery excellence, based on customers’ experiences.

I have worked closely with Gartner over the past few years to help them gain deeper insight to our business, our clients, the workloads we serve and our significant differentiators. I have introduced Gartner to many of our staff and clients, to help them understand our unique abilities. As a result, the latest Gartner ratings show rapid ascension for Layered Tech along both the vision scale and the service-execution scale.

Simplifying Complexity and Reducing Risk

As one of the more focused and intimate managed hosting service providers in the Magic Quadrant, Layered Tech is recognized for its ability to manage complex hosting needs with stringent security and compliance requirements, as demonstrated with our strong SLA and compliance guarantee. Managing complex web applications and helping to achieve and maintain security or compliance objectives is a key focus of the Layered Tech business. Our ability to help clients reduce the risk to security threats and to completely achieve compliance with respect to the IT controls is a significant differentiator.

Gartner also recognized our strength and commitment to automate service delivery and change within the ITIL-based change-management framework. This is core to our ability to deliver a high quality of service to our clients. The Layered Tech automated workflow introduces check points to mitigate change risks, automates operations and improves communications.

Compliance Expertise Recognized

Last year’s Gartner report noted that Layered Tech is one of the only providers capable of delivering comprehensive PCI and HIPAA-compliant hosting services for the electronic payment and healthcare markets. This year’s report cites Layered Tech’s expansion into the federal government FISMA compliance market as a new company strength. I would add that we also perform extremely well with SaaS/ISVs, eCommerce and Media.

We think Gartner has done a great job of highlighting some critical strengths and key target markets for Layered Tech. We will continue to drive upward momentum as we work to find new ways to serve customers and anticipate their cloud hosting and compliance needs.

About the Author: As Vice President of Product Management at Layered Tech, Kevin Van Mondfrans (@VANMONDFRANS | +Kevin Van Mondfrans) is responsible for driving the Layered Tech portfolio of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and managed service offerings. With more than 20 years of experience product development and marketing, Kevin has been delivering innovative computing, storage, cloud and service offering with companies such as HP, Dell, and Savvis.

Cloud/GOV 2013 Conference – Embracing Innovation

Published on February 7, 2013 in Events and FISMA Compliance. Closed
Posted by Teri Erickson

Cloud/Gov 2013 Conference: secure cloud and private cloud Layered Tech is excited that Microsoft will be a “Special Host Sponsor” for the DelTek GovWin – Cloud/Gov 2013 Conference. Microsoft Federal CTO Susie Adams and Layered Tech President Brad Hokamp will be panelists featuring discussion on “When is a cloud business solution right for your agency?” Larger agencies will be discussing when a move to the cloud is right and appropriate and what are the organizational concerns around moving to the cloud. There will be at least one Microsoft customer on the panel. Additional topics will include our co-branded product “Microsoft Dynamics for Government Cloud– Hosted by Layered Tech,” and will include a discussion on the unique security features of deploying secure private FISMA compliant clouds for Microsoft Dynamics partner solutions and the public sector. There will also be a deep dive on Layered Tech’s longstanding relationship with Microsoft and the LT Public Sector Incubation Center that Layered Tech runs for Microsoft with over 60 ISV (Independent Software Vendor) and SI (System Integrator) partners.

This is one of several events that Microsoft is funding to support the Dynamics for Government product launch. You won’t want to miss it!

Opportunities continue to fill the pipeline based on the creation of this co-branded product with Microsoft and Layered Tech and in due time we do hope to be announcing deals closed together! Our first one is on the horizon…

The Deltek Cloud/Gov 2013 event is taking place on February 12^th, 2013 at the Washington DC Westin. In addition to Brad Hokamp’s panel discussion, Teri Erickson who leads our Microsoft partnership will be onsite to evangelize the Dynamics for Government offering.

About the Author: Teri Erickson is the Senior Director of Cloud Services, Public Sector at LT Government Solutions. Teri’s 13 years of experience in IT include the last four years at NEW WORLD APPS (a recent LT acquisition) and prior experience as a founding member and sales director at Current Analysis.

Update on FISMA Compliant Cloud Offering for Microsoft

Published on December 13, 2012 in FISMA Compliance. Closed
Posted by Teri Erickson

Earlier this year Microsoft Corporation contracted with Layered Tech to provide “Microsoft Dynamics for Government – Hosted by Layered Tech”; a FISMA compliant cloud offering for their Dynamics solutions.

Hosted by Layered Tech in top-tier data centers, Microsoft Dynamics Government Cloud business solutions provide any federal agency the opportunity to:

Modernize mission critical workloads in either a FISMA-compliant, single-tenant private cloud with dedicated physical resources, or a FISMA-compliant, federal-only community cloud.
Sharply reduce the Certification & Accreditation time for new services by leveraging platform certification documentation developed by Layered Tech.
Partner with Layered Tech’s security professionals during the NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology) audit process through to Authorization to Operate (ATO).

On November 15th, Microsoft issued their press release on this joint offering. We have been working in partnership at product launch events, conferences, and now engaging their sales teams on a road show to further educate the 90 federal partners and 200 Microsoft federal employees to advocate our joint offering. This partnership will allow Layered Tech to keep in step with the government’s intensifying need for the benefits of business solutions delivered through secure cloud computing.

The relationship between Microsoft and LT Government Solutions (formerly NEW WORLD APPS) spans four years and I’ve been fortunate to be involved from the beginning. We have over 60 ISVs and SIs that we have architected cloud solutions and assisted in the marketing and sales of those productized offerings. As the leader of the initiative, I am very proud of the joint contribution of both the Microsoft and Layered Tech executive, marketing and BD teams.

Image credit: Serge Melki

FISMA Compliant Business Solutions for Federal Government

Published on November 15, 2012 in FISMA Compliance. Closed
Posted by Carody Lavender

When is a cloud business solution right for your agency?

An interview with Suzie Adams, Federal Chief Technology Advisor for Microsoft

This week, Microsoft Dynamics announced the availability of new cloud-based business solutions built specifically for federal government agencies. These solutions are delivered through a FISMA-compliant, federal-only infrastructure environment hosted by Microsoft partner Layered Tech. The solutions provide agencies with a private and secured cloud hosting environment built specifically to deploy mission critical solutions, enabling federal agencies to collaborate, manage data, improve processes, and access actionable business intelligence, while taking advantage of the flexibility, security, performance and cost savings of a cloud delivery model.

The FutureFed blog team had the opportunity to catch up with Susie Adams, Microsoft’s Federal Chief Technology Advisor, to help give some perspective to this announcement and answer a few questions on cloud offerings for federal agencies.

READ THE FULL BLOG HERE.

Update on Layered Tech’s Acquisition of NEW WORLD APPS

Published on November 13, 2012 in FISMA Compliance. 1 Comment
Posted by John Streeten

We are now 90 days into the merger of Layered Tech and NEW WORLD APPS, so we thought it would be helpful to send out an update from the front lines: How is the integration going?

In short, the integration is going great! Through a lot of hard work from both the Layered Tech and the legacy NEW WORLD APPS teams, we are proud to say both sides remain very excited about the combination, and morale is very high. NEW WORLD APPS is being run as a separate division of Layered Technologies targeting U.S. federal government customers. Our focus on security and compliance has been galvanized even further and these added capabilities have catapulted Layered Tech to a higher level.

FedRAMP Status – NEW WORLD APPS has established a strong leadership position in the FedRAMP certification process. FedRAMP is the newest U.S. federal government security compliance guideline for Cloud solutions. NEW WORLD APPS is positioned well to be among the early Cloud Service Providers being considered to go through the FedRAMP certification process.

Sales Synergy in Action – Last week, a major federal agency awarded a new contract to NEW WORLD APPS to host a complex FISMA-compliant solution. This contract resulted from an existing long-term customer of Layered Tech’s that is now penetrating the federal government market, and that needed experienced FISMA-compliant Cloud expertise. A win for the customer, a win for Layered Tech, and a big win for the government which can now deploy an excellent solution in a FISMA-compliant SaaS model instead of deploying their application on-premises!

Microsoft Partnership – NEW WORLD APPS has been partnered with Microsoft for over a decade, providing managed hosting and Cloud services for public sector customers on Microsoft’s many technology platforms. NEW WORLD APPS plays a critical role for the Microsoft Public Sector team, and is Microsoft’s ISV Cloud Incubation Center for public sector. Lots of great things are happening between Microsoft and NEW WORLD APPS, with many exciting new announcements in the works. Stay tuned!

About the Author: As President of Layered Tech’s U.S. Federal Division, John Streeten leads Layered Tech’s Ashburn, VA-based sales and engineering teams targeting U.S. federal government customers. As co-founder of NEW WORLD APPS, John has a background in both finance and marketing and has worked in the hosting and cloud industry for over 15 years.