In yet another major validation of Rancher Government Solutions’ (RGS) security posture, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has announced that it has approved and published the Secure Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) for RKE2, Rancher’s Kubernetes distribution. With this validation, RGS becomes the only company to have an approved Kubernetes distribution STIG officially recognized and published by DISA.

The validation by DISA allows U.S. Government customers—specifically the Department of Defense (DoD)—to deploy and use RKE2 on network systems, making it the second RGS Kubernetes product to receive such a designation. In April, DISA validated and published the STIG for the Rancher Multi-Cluster Manager (MCM) 2.6. These two distinctions enable RGS customers and industry partners to deploy RKE2 and the Rancher MCM securely and confidently on top of mission critical US Government infrastructure.

“This DISA announcement validates our commitment to ensuring that the open source and Kubernetes products we deliver meet the highest security standards of the U.S. Federal Government,” said Lynne Chamberlain, CEO of Rancher Government Solutions.

STIG validation is a security review and configuration standard that helps ensure technology products and the federal agencies that utilize them are complying with DoD security policies. DISA-approved STIGs are a critical component utilized by the agency to safeguard DoD network resilience and protect government information systems from cybersecurity threats and malicious attacks by strengthening baseline security configurations.

“Security continues to be the number one priority of the US Government,” said Brandon Gulla the Chief Technology Officer at RGS. “We are honored to support the warfighter with products that meet them at their mission in the most secure way possible.”

RKE2 is an easy-to-install, secure-by-default Kubernetes distribution specifically engineered to adhere to the robust compliance requirements of U.S. Government. RKE2 is Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) enabled and SELinux supported and is currently being used across the DoD, Intelligence Community and Civilian Agencies.

The scale, security and speed requirements of US Government, and DoD specifically, are not well served by legacy monolithic architectures. The US Government’s drive to modernize the way it builds, secures, and deploys applications has led to the rapid growth and popularity of containerized applications that are orchestrated with Kubernetes.

DISA Announcement (link):

https://public.cyber.mil/announcement/disa-releases-the-rancher-government-solutions-rke2-security-technical-implementation-guide/

Key Takeaways:

• DISA's actions validate RGS’ commitment to meeting the challenges and the strict security needs of the U.S. Government, DoD, and Intelligence Community (IC).
• U.S. Government and DoD IT teams can now deploy and use RKE2 on Federal and DoD networks with the confidence that RKE2 meets the highest security standards of DISA.
• Rancher enables digital transformation and application modernization for customers by allowing them to run Kubernetes everywhere, from the data center to the tactical edge.

About Rancher Government Solutions (RGS)

Rancher Government Solutions is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers, and Kubernetes.

Rancher supports a complete open source software stack for teams adopting containers. It addresses the operational and security challenges of managing multiple Kubernetes clusters at scale, while providing DevOps teams with integrated tools for running containerized workloads.

RGS supports all Rancher products with U.S. based American citizens with the highest security clearances who are currently supporting programs across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies.

To learn more, visit: www.ranchergovernment.com

About the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)

DISA is a U.S. Department of Defense combat support agency composed of more than 7,000 military and civilian employees to provide, operate, and assure command, control, information-sharing capabilities, and a globally accessible enterprise information infrastructure in direct support to joint warfighters, national-level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of military operations.

To learn more, visit: www.disa.mil

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