National Archives Issues Guidelines on Cloud Computing
Press Release · Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Washington, DC

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has issued guidance for Federal Agencies on records management and cloud computing. NARA Bulletin 2010-05: Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments, builds on the NARA FAQ about Cloud Computing posted on the Archives.gov web site in February, 2010.

The new guidance defines and outlines cloud computing technology, deployment models, and service models. This Bulletin was developed in consultation with several Federal agencies now adopting various forms of cloud computing. These discussions helped NARA identify and validate challenges for records management posed by cloud computing. The Bulletin also proposes ways Federal agencies can begin to address such challenges.

The Bulletin includes a general contracting clause for Federal agencies to use when procuring cloud computing solutions and negotiating contracts with service providers. This clause can modified to fit the planned type of service and the agency’s specific records management needs.

For more information on this cloud computing guidance, see NARA’s National Records Management Program’s official blog at http://blogs.archives.gov/records-express.