Salesforce.com Unveils the Government Cloud

Updated: May 31, 2012

Salesforce.com Unveils the Government Cloud

Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, unveiled the Government Cloud to accelerate government’s transformation for the social era. The Government Cloud will include a dedicated, multi-tenant instance of salesforce.com’s cloud infrastructure that will allow U.S. federal, state, and local agencies to rapidly deploy the latest social and mobile technologies in compliance with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements. The Government Cloud also includes AppExchange for Government, a new app marketplace for the public sector where government agencies can find, try and deploy cloud apps that meet their needs. Additionally, the Government Cloud includes the Salesforce Government Partner Accelerator Program, which will train an army of 1,000 integrators by the end of 2012 to rapidly transform government IT with Salesforce.

New Dedicated Government Instance: Meeting the Needs of U.S. Government

To accelerate government’s transformation to the social enterprise, salesforce.com will deploy a dedicated instance of its cloud computing infrastructure for U.S. federal, state, and local government customers and government-authorized entities. The salesforce.com government instance will be composed of dedicated databases and supporting infrastructure designed to meet the regulatory and compliance needs of U.S. government customers.

The salesforce.com government instance will be built on the company’s trusted, multi-tenant infrastructure, which will allow agencies to scale instantly and get easy, automatic upgrades. The dedicated, multi-tenant government cloud instance will provide separate application and database servers supporting government customers, housed within salesforce.com’s U.S. production data centers. Using secure software access controls, government data will be logically separated on the government instance, meaning an agency’s data will reside in common databases along with other government customers.

The dedicated government instance will offer the same high level of security, reliability and availability as other salesforce.com instances and will support existing security and privacy standards and certifications including FISMA, SSAE 16 (formerly SAS 70), ISO 27001, PCI-DSS Level 1, Safe Harbor, and TRUSTe.

New AppExchange for Government: The App Marketplace for the Public Sector
The new AppExchange for Government provides a central cloud app marketplace where government agencies can drive their social transformations and reduce costs by quickly identifying applications to meet their needs. AppExchange for Government is a one-stop shop for everything from help desks and asset management, to program and project management, to constituent relations and more. Launching with more than 60 apps selected specifically for government and public sector agencies, AppExchange for Government includes apps like:

  •  BasicGov: BasicGov is a reliable, secure application built on Force.com that allows cities, counties, state governments and government agencies to streamline permitting and inspections, code enforcement, planning, licensing and citizen access.
  • DocuSign: DocuSign is a leading eSignature application built on Force.com that helps organizations streamline workflows to accelerate transactions, reduce costs, and delight constituents with the fastest way to send, sign, track, and store documents in the cloud.
  • SchoolForce: SchoolForce includes essential Student Information System (SIS) modules such as attendance, behavior, homework, student records and grade book, as well as collaboration and document management – all of which can all be shared with parents and students via a Web portal. SchoolForce powers data driven improvements in student outcomes and represents a significant advancement in the measurement of K-12 student, teacher and school performance by tapping the power of cloud technologies and advanced analytics.

AppExchange for Government builds on the tremendous success of salesforce.com’s AppExchange which currently has more than 1,400 cloud apps that have been test driven or deployed more than one million times by salesforce.com’s more than 100,000 customers.

Government Agencies Trust Salesforce.com to Power Their Social Transformations

Salesforce.com currently counts two-thirds of U.S. federal Cabinet-level agencies and governments in more than 80 percent of U.S. states as users of its trusted cloud services. Salesforce.com has received the FISMA Authority to Operate (ATO) at the moderate impact level with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Department of the Interior (DOI), and General Services Administration (GSA), adding to existing ATOs at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Customers at state government levels across the country, including the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority, New Jersey Transit, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Texas Department of Information Resources are all leveraging salesforce.com’s social, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies.

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