GSA

Synopsis

The General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) sought to operationalize a shared authentication platform titled Login.gov that offers citizens government-provided digital identities. The platform would serve as a response to federal directives and action plans to provide citizens with secure singular digital accounts that can be used government-wide to access participating federal agencies.
In Enquizit, GSA TTS found an IT solutions provider that could satisfy its vendor objectives; which were to:

Develop, test, and deploy code rapidly using Lean and Agile.

Minimize up-front investment and optimize operational cost.

Access, manage, and analyze capacity on-demand.

Support access to a broad range of tools in a self-service environment

Enable virtual machine instances of distributed compute, storage, relational and non-relational databases, data warehouses for business analytics, and content delivery networks.

Support automated provisioning elasticity.

Initial State

The Login.gov project was in progress with U.S. Digital Services leading the effort. As the scope of the project grew–onboarding of new agencies with increased demands for new features, enhanced performance, and more stringent security requirements–Enquizit was brought in to accommodate Government requests.

Enquizit’s Solution

In collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Enquizit is working to satisfy the technical requirements of this contract while providing a structured framework for project monitoring and controlling processes. The core tenants of this project management plan include:

Communications Management: Facilitates a regular, two-way flow of information at all levels of the project. Enquizit established a repository for collecting, organizing, and accessing plans, deliverables, and other artifacts, to promote team communication and provide transparency.

Risk Management: Identifies potential risks and mitigation strategies. Risks are assessed to expose potential impact, triggers, and probability.

Stakeholder Management: Status meetings, In Progress Reviews (IPR), and the project management repository are used to communicate and coordinate with stakeholders, in addition to providing a weekly management report.

Challenges

As a federal project with strict security requirements, Login.gov provides citizens with government-provided digital identities established at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Levels of Assurance (LOA) LOA3 in 800-63-3 with remote proofing. Enquizit continues to enable security and protect privacy by applying its understanding of and experience meeting the security requirements of federal agencies. Within these confines, Enquizit is defining a virtual private cloud (VPC), access control lists bound to security groups, multi-factor authentication, secure shell (SSH) access, and a public-key infrastructure, while streamlining the certification and accreditation process.

Benefits

The certification and accreditation process is streamlined including achieving FISMA Moderate and progression toward achieving a FedRAMP Moderate ATO. Accelerated build and deployment of security and privacy features (CI/CD Pipeline). Additional features to enhance user experience, such as the U.S.A. Jobs (usajobs.gov) required features and subsequent integration. Speed and reliability of the website was increased. Single Sign On now works across a variety of Government agencies, such as Custom and Border Protection, in a seamless and secure manner, with additional agencies in que.

Tools and Technologies:

Ruby on Rails, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Cloud HSM, EC2, S3, EFS, EBS, Elastic Load Balancers, Application Load Balancers

Customer:

General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS)

Project Title:

GSA Login.gov

Project Duration:

September 2017 – Present

Prime and Partners

Prime: Enquizit

Partners: AWS–Professional Services

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GSA