Memset secures IL3 accreditation

Leading SME supplier to the G-Cloud project, Memset have today revealed that they have achieved Pan Government Accreditation to Impact Level 3 (PGA IL3).

Memset is now one of a select few holding the highest level of accreditation for Cloud hosting services. Completing the IL3 accreditation process, Memset is compliant to process "OFFICIAL information and connected to the PSN Encrypted Overlay", to use the new Government Security Classification terminology.

Kate Craig-Wood, MD of Memset said: “This is fantastic news for Memset and our partners. We have many SME customers with great products that they want to take into the IL3, or official, space and now we’re able to provide them with the accredited infrastructure platform they have been waiting for.”

As a pre-existing SME, providing hosting services to the private sector for over 10 years, the accreditation process has very much been the meeting of different worlds, with Memset teaching CESG about their approaches to open source and cloud whilst they helped Memset understand the mandated government security approaches.

"As a trail blazer it has been a strenuous process for an organisation of our size, but we look forward to sharing our experience with the Cabinet Office in hopes of easing the journey for other SMEs gaining official/IL3 accreditation,” continued Craig-Wood.

Many G-Cloud approved SMEs don’t have the spare capacity or resource to achieve higher levels of security accreditation with no assurance of revenue. This has presented a blocker to government's goal of bringing SMEs into public sector IT, but Memset have shown it can be done and hope this will inspire others to follow suit, bolstering the G-Cloud ecosystem.

Peter Wenham, director and co-founder of Trusted Management, a consultancy specialising in Information Assurance and Cyber Security who took Memset through the entire process of gaining the accreditation said: “Memset have become the third G-Cloud supplier to achieve compliant IL3 status, it’s a fantastic achievement for an SME especially in light of the government’s drive to ensure that a quarter of its spending will go to SMEs by the end of 2015.”