Business continuity specialist Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) has won Pan Government Accreditation (PGA) for Impact Level 3 (IL3), for its private cloud infrastructure.

Sungard AS’s managed service offering is based on an integrated infrastructure comprised of Cisco and NetApp technology, Flexpod.

The service includes round-the-clock support and system monitoring from Sungard’s public sector IL3 service management and operations teams.

The rationale is to allow clients to manage their own applications but outsource the infrastructure management to Sungard.

Additional data security is provided by a dual site option with automatic failover backed by an integrated disaster recovery plan.

The new accreditation allows Sungard AS to support organizations that adopt private and hybrid cloud computing systems.

Sungard’s service can bridge different levels of security via an accredited Gateway, including IL2 (for citizen facing requirements) and IL3.

The accreditation is an assurance to customers that they can meet government criteria for new ‘Official’ and ‘Official Sensitive’ security levels, which will combine both IL2 and IL3.

The new accreditation means that Sungard AS’s independent software vendor (ISV) partners can obtain delta accreditation and PGA status, if they can prove that their applications run on the Sungard AS’ IL3 platform.

Consultancy and support from Sungard AS will speed the accreditation process for ISVs who may themselves have limited levels of skilled sources.

Data center customers and partners will also benefit from Sungard AS’s secure Public Services Network (PSN) connectivity.

With the government committed to spending 25% of its IT budget with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by 2015, Sungard AS is looking for appropriate ISV partners that fit this category.

Sungard AS’s EVP of EMEA & APAC Keith Tilley said the government framework policy has had to shift dramatically.

“All application providers now have a huge opportunity to expand service delivery to the public sector. But these services need high security accreditation and partnering with Sungard AS provides it,” Tilley said.