The Verizon Enterprise Solutions (VZ) Enterprise Cloud: Federal Edition cloud computing platform has received Authority to Operate (ATO) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

Verizon Enterprise Solutions said securing the FedRAMP ATO “paves the way for U.S. government agencies to easily and securely migrate mission-critical workloads to the cloud.”

“We are seeing accelerating interest in cloud computing across our public sector business, and achieving FedRAMP authorization underscores our commitment to providing reliable, flexible and high-performance on-demand computing solutions that enable the business of government,” Michael Maiorana, senior vice president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ public sector markets, said in a prepared statement.

The FedRAMP ATO also can help government agencies better evaluate the security of various cloud services, Verizon Enterprise Solutions said.

Verizon Enterprise Cloud: Federal Edition is currently available for purchase from the GSA IT Schedule 70 as well as blanket-purchase agreements managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of the Interior.

How much is the government cloud market worth?

Recent data indicates the government cloud market’s worth is expected to increase over the next few years, and as a result, Verizon Enterprise Solutions could extend its market reach.

MarketsandMarkets recently predicted the global government cloud market’s worth would increase from $2.87 billion in 2013 to $18.48 billion in 2018, which represents a 45 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during that time frame.

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Market Research Media also said it expects the U.S. federal cloud computing market’s worth to increase.

The research firm predicted the U.S. federal cloud computing segment would grow at a CAGR of 16 percent from 2015 to 2020 and be worth over $10 billion by 2020.

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