Posted on July 8th, 2011Based on an announcement on Tuesday, the United States Federal government has chosen a Dallas-based data company, Horizon, to provide it with cloud hosting services.
Due to its selection, Horizon has officially received “ATO” approval (authority to operate).
The selection is said to arrive after a process which takes 8-months. Prior to being approved, the government needs to ensure that Horizon meets with their security standards. Guaranteeing suitable revival from a disaster situation is also an integral part of the reviewing process.
Horizons CEO stated in a press release that, “With this ATO, Horizon’s purpose built cloud is officially open for government business, and Horizon and EyakTek are ready to take the lead in helping federal agencies save money by accessing the incredible potential of our highly secure, cloud-based services.”
The company was created in 2000, specializing in management services, with cloud computing and co-location being a key part of it. Horizon has a large clientele including many famous ones such as the Hunt Capital Group and the Susan G. Koman Foundation.
Recently, the United States government has developed a new policy to give special consideration to the usage of multiple servers through cloud computing. The government even went forward and approved Microsoft’s cloud-based Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) in April, to be used by federal employees.
Currently, the United States government is on the course to combine its federal information centers and has planned on closing down 800 of them within the subsequent four years. It was estimated in a study carried out by an IT research group, Meritalk, in April that, the United States government has the ability to save up to eighteen billion dollars from this shutting down of the centers.