From municipalities and small cities to large federal agencies, organizations that serve the public sector are prime targets for cybercrimes due to factors such as the sheer quantity of institutions and all-too-common financial constraints. Government agencies hold sensitive personal and financial information on individuals as well as data on the government itself, making the stakes incredibly high.

Still, digital transformation and acceleration remains a core priority for government agencies, and many are turning to DevOps to help. Federal agencies provide crucial services to a large number of constituents and internal customers, and they need the tools to help them work efficiently in Salesforce and move beyond complex legacy apps.

An approach that puts security at the core while enabling this transformation is essential. Here are three key questions agencies should ask when selecting a DevOps partner:

• Is the product FedRAMP-compliant?

Established in 2011, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP^®) provides a standardized approach to security authorizations for Cloud Service Offerings. This government certification aims to help federal agencies use modern cloud technologies while keeping security front and center. One classification of companies who often work in the cloud are independent software vendors (ISV) such as Salesforce Government Cloud, who develop, market and sell software that runs on third-party software andhardware platforms. While ISV products do not meet the requirements to be listed in the FedRAMP marketplace because they do notprocess, store or transmit federal or system data, they are FedRAMP-compliant because they have no ongoing access to their customers' production environments. Look for a DevOps solution that is native to Salesforce and meets all the security, privacy and compliance requirements that the Salesforceitself platform does.

• Are there audit trails?

For federal agencies, audits are a way of life. Organizations need a solution that enables them to stay in compliance, quickly respond to audits without disrupting business operations, and keep SOX audit costs in check. Audit trails are a game-changing feature in these cases, allowing federal agencies to maintain a detailed audit trail for agency reporting requirements or in the case of an audit or compliance investigation. Additionally, audit trails can help organizations see when changes were entered manually in a way that may not comply with security protocols, ensuring the full visibility into org-based access controls that is crucial for governance and compliance.

• Will it enable digital transformation?

At the end of the day, it still comes down to digital transformation. To be successful, a DevOps solution must meet security and compliance requirements while increasing an organization's speed and agility. Tools that improve team alignment and provide overwrite protection are key to helping agencies deliver on their mission.

Check all the boxes with Flosum

Flosum is just the DevOps tool to align public sector agencies' missions and citizen services around security, speed and agility. At Flosum, we understand that achieving digital transformation among the stringent and rapidly changing government requirements and regulations requires a more rigorous development process. We provide robust security measures to protect sensitive data, including role-based access control, encryption and multi-factor authentication. With the audit trail feature, Flosum tracks all changes made to the codebase and demonstrate their compliance.

Flosum is the only 100% native DevOps solution purpose-built for Salesforce, making it the best, if not only, choice for government agencies. Flosum increases deployment velocity and simplifies the development process, all while ensuring security and compliance since code and data never leave Salesforce.

Learn how a U.S. defense agency uses Flosum to improve efficiency and security.

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