The US government has made available a Homeland Security cloud to over 80,000 government users which supports communications and document management.

The cloud supplied by NC4 supports 2,500 Homeland Security communities which support over 80,000 federal, state and local users. The NC4 Homeland Security Cloud is designed to help secure the US against attack and serious crime by providing users with applications for situational awareness, emergency management, law enforcement, and secure communication and collaboration.

NC4's Homeland Security Cloud enables organisations to virtualise information and document management, business process management, community management and security management within a single, secure, cloud-based infrastructure.

The cloud hosts data in a facility built to Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) standards, and is certified for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), For Official Use Only (FOUO) and Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) data. It meets the Director of Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) 6/9 guidelines.

"The number one concern expressed when considering the move to a cloud infrastructure is security," said George Johnson, NC4 chief security officer. "We have built our cloud infrastructure with security as the top priority every step of the way. The bottom line is that homeland security professionals do not need to wait for cloud computing solutions to be hardened."

The US government's move to cloud computing for homeland security follows its recent decision to allow all federal government agencies to buy their applications from a cloud-based trading site, which allows agencies to download the software they need at a cheaper cost.