Data & TechnologyThe pressure is on federal agencies to get more efficient, and agency leaders are feeling the squeeze. That’s where FedRAMP®-authorized solutions make a difference. Instead of spending months or even years running your own security assessments, your agency can select from solutions that are already vetted and approved.
But not all FedRAMP cloud service offerings are alike. Only those carrying FedRAMP High Authorization are designed to meet the U.S. government’s most stringent cybersecurity requirements. When you choose FedRAMP High solutions, including cloud faxing platforms, your staff will spend less time testing and more time fulfilling your agency’s mission.
What Is FedRAMP High Authorization?
FedRAMP is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, designed to standardize security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring of SaaS products and services.
There are three impact levels of FedRAMP: Low, Moderate, and High.
- FedRAMP Low: Applies to systems handling only limited amounts of sensitive information
- FedRAMP Moderate: Covers most federal agency workloads, where a breach would be serious but not catastrophic
- FedRAMP High: Reserved for the government’s most sensitive and mission-critical systems, where a compromise could threaten national security, law enforcement operations, or the economy
High-authorized status is the premier FedRAMP impact level. When a cloud service provider (CSP) earns FedRAMP High, it means the platform has been tested against more than 400 cloud security controls, including access control, encryption, and vulnerability scanning. These controls are mapped to information security standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST SP 800-53) and validated by an accredited third-party assessment organization (3PAO) to ensure compliance.
By doing this type of high-impact security assessment up front, agencies don’t need to deal with the time and hassle involved with performing their own government-mandated authorization to operate (ATO) security testing of CSPs.
Who Needs a FedRAMP High-Authorized Solution?
All federal agencies — including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — can benefit from FedRAMP High-authorized solutions.
By choosing from solutions already cleared at the high-impact level, agencies avoid months of duplicative security testing and can begin implementation immediately. The same advantage extends to contractors, non-government organizations (NGOs), and consultants who work with federal partners. They can adopt technology that’s already been stress-tested against the rigorous FedRAMP process.
For state governments, the calculus is similar. Even though many states rely on their own programs under StateRAMP (administered through GovRAMP), they frequently exchange sensitive data with federal partners, such as state Departments of Health (DOH) interfacing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Using FedRAMP High-authorized technology ensures these state agencies meet federal security requirements without duplicating review cycles.
The Business Benefits of FedRAMP High for Leaders
For agency leaders, FedRAMP compliance at the High level addresses multiple operational and financial pressures. Here are three of the most significant business benefits.
Security and Cost Efficiency
FedRAMP High gives federal government agencies a trusted baseline so they don’t have to run their own cloud security reviews for every new SaaS product they implement. Instead, they can procure technology that already meets federal information security requirements by default, giving your team a baseline of security controls you can trust.
Operational Agility
FedRAMP High-authorized solutions speed the path to ATO, reducing delays that often hold up new contracts or system rollouts. With a proven security groundwork already in place, agencies can move faster to implement new technology, adapt to new requirements, and keep programs on schedule.
Trust & Accountability
Federal and state agencies operate under constant public scrutiny. Choosing a provider authorized at the FedRAMP High level shows responsible use of taxpayer dollars and compliance with federal regulations. It also signals to auditors, regulators, and the public that your agency is serious about serving its constituents.
How FedRAMP High Supports Faster Procurement
To understand how FedRAMP makes procurement more efficient, consider the scenario of an agency needing to replace an outdated fax server. Without FedRAMP, your agency would need to conduct its own cybersecurity review, a process that could stretch several months and drain staff resources.
By choosing a FedRAMP High-authorized cloud platform, that work is already done. You can purchase the service directly from the FedRAMP Marketplace, confident that it meets the standards needed to handle sensitive government data.
The same is true for any other cloud computing platform. High authorization turns procurement and FedRAMP compliance from a roadblock into a starting point so your agency can start realizing ROI faster.
Why Fax Still Matters in Government Agency Workflows
Fax continues to play an essential role in federal government agency operations, even in the AI era. That’s because faxing is a trusted, proven method for exchanging documents. Nearly every agency, contractor, and NGO has a fax number, making fax reliable across systems and borders.
Fax also makes it easier for agencies to communicate with partners with a lower level of technical maturity. Consider a small pharmacy that processes Medicaid claims, which ultimately flow back to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under HHS. Faxing allows the pharmacy to share information with HHS seamlessly.
What’s different about faxing today is the delivery method. FedRAMP High-authorized cloud-based faxing transforms paper-based faxing into a secure, digital workflow. Instead of standing at a fax machine or multi-function device (MFD), workers inside your agency can send and receive faxes directly from their desktops, saving countless hours of time.
ECFax®: A FedRAMP High Faxing Solution
Enterprise Cloud Fax (ECFax®) is a FedRAMP High-authorized faxing solution. Designed specifically for federal agencies, ECFax gives agencies a reliable, secure, and scalable legacy fax alternative that delivers multiple benefits.
Security You Can Trust
ECFax is HIPAA compliant. It also meets the most important security and quality assurance protocols for data protection, including:
- Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS 140-2)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)
- Section 508 accessibility requirements
Plus, because ECFax is FedRAMP High-authorized, agencies can reduce or eliminate ATO testing. ECFax also eliminates the potential human errors of manual fax through automation, ensuring no papers are left out in the open at a physical fax machine or MFD.
Significant Cost Savings
Because ECFax eliminates the need for physical fax machines, paper, and other physical infrastructure, agencies can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars. ECFax also integrates directly with your agency’s existing IT systems through RESTful APIs. This eliminates overhead expenses associated with servers and telecom hardware, giving you more dollars to reinvest into mission-critical priorities.
Modernized Workflows
ECFax replaces paper-based faxing with automation. Agency staff can send and receive documents directly from their email inboxes. Performance dashboards show how the system is being used in near-real time so IT teams can spot and fix issues quickly. And 24/7 help desk support provides the uninterrupted service and reliable communications agencies need.
Scalable Infrastructure
Hosted on Amazon Web Services GovCloud, ECFax supports millions of transactions a year. The platform automatically scales as fax volume increases, supporting your agency during its busiest times of year (such as processing heavy IRS fax traffic during tax season).
A Path to AI Readiness
Most government agencies want to adopt AI and improve their automation capabilities but struggle with data maturity. ECFax helps jumpstart the process by digitizing unstructured data locked inside paper-based workflows. Once digitized, this data can be stored and searched more easily, strengthening the workflows agencies already use and setting them up for future AI-enabled improvements.
ECFax is already delivering results to federal agencies. The VA is currently implementing ECFax for use in all of its clinics, medical centers, hospitals, and technology centers.
Choose the Right FedRAMP High Solutions
Modernization doesn’t have to mean slowing down. FedRAMP High-authorized solutions let your agency adopt cloud technology that’s already cleared against the standards you’d otherwise have to test yourself. This shortcut saves months of review time and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost.
ECFax is a FedRAMP High-authorized cloud faxing solution, giving you a faster, safer way to retire legacy fax servers and digitize document workflows. With ECFax, you can reduce testing time, cut operating costs, meet FedRAMP compliance obligations, and prepare for an AI-enabled future.
Explore ECFax in the FedRAMP Marketplace, or request a demo and see ECFax in action.
