What It Takes to Sell Cloud-Based Software to the U.S. Government

The threat of hackers and/or hostile foreign governments using malicious code to gain backdoor access into the U.S. government’s IT infrastructure is a tremendous national security risk. Just imagine the implications and liabilities of a software system that provided third-party access to one of America’s critical infrastructures (i.e., power grid, water utilities, transportation systems), and the consequences of a cyber breach. That’s why software companies that want to sell their products to the U.S. government must ensure that they are delivering a product that is free of malicious code, ransomware, or some other “hidden hand” implanted by a hostile foreign intelligence service. As the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and other agencies transition into an era of global cyberwarfare and virtual battlefields, new companies are emerging to fill the Pentagon’s desperate cyber needs. This year alone, U.S. federal agencies will purchase more than $80 billion in private IT solutions, $9 billion of which will go towards cloud-based solutions. But simply having innovative cloud-based software is not enough — it must also be secure.