LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Box (NYSE: BOX) today announced it has brought on Sonny Hashmi, former chief information officer for the U.S. General Services Administration, to lead the company’s efforts in the federal government space. Hashmi will drive Box’s strategy in the federal vertical as part of the Box for Industries initiative, helping federal agencies move to Box’s secure content collaboration platform. Box already has more than 40 customers in this space, with agencies and departments servicing healthcare, military, educational, judicial, legislative and regulatory components of the U.S. Federal Government using Box to be more efficient, streamlined and agile. Sponsored by Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Box is also working towards delivering its cloud content collaboration platform to government customers based on FedRAMP security standards.

“The federal government has made significant moves toward deploying cloud systems, consolidating data centers and reducing redundancy in government IT, driving more efficiency and better collaboration,” said Aaron Levie, CEO at Box. “We are excited to continue to support and accelerate these major trends, and Sonny’s innovative leadership is just what the industry needs to accelerate the adoption of cloud and mobile technologies. We’re incredibly thrilled to have him join Box and help drive our momentum and growth in the federal space.”

“With Box, federal agencies have the opportunity to both save millions of dollars by moving off legacy systems as well as to create a much more agile and iterative approach to government IT, all while ensuring the protection and security of critical content,” said Sonny Hashmi. “I am excited to join this innovative company and play a significant role in establishing a strategic vision for the transformation of federal IT.”

New Leadership

Hashmi is a long-time industry veteran in the federal IT space. Most recently, Hashmi was the CIO for the GSA where he was responsible for managing the agency's $600 million Information Technology budget and ensuring alignment with agency and administration strategic objectives, information security and enterprise architecture. Previously, he served as the agency’s Deputy CIO and CTO. While in these positions, he led several technology initiatives that leveraged emerging technologies to modernize and improve GSA operations. He also was a major force behind GSA’s adoption of cloud for email and collaboration as well as creating agile practices for cloud development.

Prior to joining GSA, Hashmi was the Deputy CIO for the District of Columbia, Office of the Chief Financial Officer. He also worked for private sector organizations leading large scale initiatives for federal, state and local government agencies. Hashmi has a master’s degree in engineering from Purdue University and a master’s certificate in innovation management from the University of Maryland.

FedRAMP

Box has developed and documented its security offerings in accordance with the FedRAMP and NIST 800-53 Rev 4 security requirements and framework, and is currently being assessed by an independent third-party assessor organization. Box is pursuing FedRAMP compliance through the Agency Authorization Path with DISA as the sponsor.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a standardized approach to conduct cloud security assessments based on an accepted baseline of security controls and consistent processes that have been vetted and agreed upon by agencies across the federal government. Through FedRAMP's leveraged security authorizations, federal agencies can drastically reduce the time it takes to adopt new IT capabilities and save the government money, time and staff by eliminating redundant agency security assessments.

For more information on today's announcement, please visit the Box blog.

To learn more about Box for government, please visit www.box.com/industries/government.

About Box

Founded in 2005, Box (NYSE: BOX) is transforming the way people and organizations work so they can achieve their greatest ambitions. As the world's leading enterprise software platform for content collaboration, Box helps business of all sizes in every industry securely access and manage their critical information in the cloud. Box is headquartered in Los Altos, CA, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit www.box.com.