Organizations that implement Temporal Cloud may face challenges when providing cloud services for the federal government. The federal government, being one of the largest consumers of cloud technology, mandates that cloud services must be certified by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®). Each Cloud Service Offering (CSO) requires individual authorization.
For organizations seeking to incorporate Temporal into their FedRAMP-authorized cloud services, hosting Temporal’s services internally is an option. This post explores the benefits of using Temporal Cloud alongside a self-hosted instance for non-FedRAMP authorized Cloud Service Offerings.
FedRAMP® Overview
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®) is a government-wide program that establishes a standardized approach to evaluating security, authorization, and continuous monitoring of cloud services. FedRAMP aligns with standards and guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and provides a process for authorizing Cloud Service Offerings through individual government agencies or the Joint Authorization Board. Once a CSO is authorized, it can be utilized by any agency within the US Government.
Augmenting Self-Hosted Temporal With Temporal Cloud
While Temporal Cloud, Temporal’s Cloud Service Offering, is not FedRAMP certified, organizations can consider self-hosting Temporal services to leverage its capabilities for their CSOs. Operating Temporal at scale poses unique challenges due to its highly scalable, multi-tenant, distributed system with multiple services and a database. It is crucial to monitor essential metrics for sizing and scaling a self-hosted Temporal instance effectively.
Despite the challenges, a self-hosted Temporal instance can offer significant advantages, enabling organizations to build more reliable systems and deliver features faster. For non-FedRAMP authorized Cloud Offerings or internal tools not subject to cloud visibility, using Temporal Cloud for these services and reserving the self-hosted instance for FedRAMP authorized CSOs can be a strategic approach.
Benefits of Temporal Cloud
Performance and Scalability
Temporal Cloud is designed to scale to meet the demands of high-volume users, processing over 150k actions/second or 100B actions/month. It features an elastic control plane that automatically scales based on load, along with a custom persistence layer optimized for Temporal’s event-sourcing model. Temporal Cloud’s architecture ensures better performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness compared to a self-hosted instance.
Support
Operational support is essential for maintaining performance and scalability goals. Temporal Cloud reduces operational overhead by providing 24/7 support with an SLA of under 1 hour, ensuring timely issue resolution.
Automatic Updates
With regular releases approximately every six weeks, Temporal Cloud automatically updates without service downtime, ensuring that your system stays current with the latest features and improvements.
Summary
For organizations serving the federal government with cloud services, self-hosting Temporal is ideal for FedRAMP-authorized CSOs. Utilizing Temporal Cloud for non-FedRAMP services or internal tools offers benefits such as enhanced performance, support, and automatic updates.
Need more help with Temporal?
Bitovi provides Temporal consulting services to assist with your implementation. Our team of experts can guide you through the orchestration process. Schedule a free consultation to get started.
