GCP FedRAMP SaaS Platform

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Multi-Region FedRAMP-Compliant SaaS Platform on GCP

Architected highly-regulated GCP deployment of enterprise SaaS offering featuring heavy Kubernetes workloads, AI/ML integration, and supporting infrastructure services deployed across multiple regions for high availability and FedRAMP compliance.

Federal agencies and government contractors require cloud services to meet FedRAMP authorization standards, which mandate strict security controls, continuous monitoring, and data residency requirements. This project delivered a production-ready GCP environment that extends the company's existing SaaS platform to serve government customers while maintaining feature parity with commercial offerings and meeting rigorous compliance standards.

Multi-Region

High Availability Architecture

FedRAMP

Moderate Impact Level

15 Months

Design to Production Deployment

The Challenge

Expanding the company's SaaS platform to serve federal government customers required building an entirely new GCP environment that met FedRAMP compliance while maintaining operational parity with existing AWS infrastructure:

  • FedRAMP Moderate Compliance: Meet 325+ security controls from NIST SP 800-53 including encryption, access controls, audit logging, vulnerability scanning, and incident response across all infrastructure and application layers
  • Multi-Region High Availability: Deploy across multiple GCP regions with automated failover to achieve 99.99% SLA, ensuring government services remain available during region outages
  • Heavy Kubernetes Workloads: Support containerized microservices architecture with hundreds of pods across multiple GKE clusters, requiring robust networking, service mesh, and autoscaling capabilities
  • AI/ML Integration: Integrate Vertex AI for machine learning workloads while ensuring model training data and inference remain within FedRAMP boundary with appropriate access controls
  • Data Residency Requirements: Ensure all customer data, including logs, backups, and replicas, remain within authorized GCP regions and never transit outside the US
  • Network Segmentation: Isolate government workloads from commercial infrastructure while enabling shared services and minimizing operational overhead of managing parallel environments
  • Continuous Monitoring: Implement comprehensive security monitoring, log aggregation, and automated compliance reporting required for FedRAMP continuous authorization to operate (ATO)
  • Infrastructure as Code: Deploy entire environment via Terraform to ensure consistency, enable disaster recovery, and support rapid environment replication for testing and DR scenarios

The project required balancing strict regulatory requirements with operational efficiency, cost control, and feature parity with the commercial SaaS offering running on AWS.

Solution: Multi-Region GCP Platform with Kubernetes-Native Architecture

Designed and deployed production GCP environment spanning multiple regions with GKE clusters, managed databases, AI/ML services, and comprehensive security controls meeting FedRAMP Moderate requirements.

Multi-Region Kubernetes Deployment

GKE clusters deployed across 3 GCP regions with global load balancing, automated pod scheduling, and cross-region service mesh for resilience. Achieved 99.99% uptime SLA with automatic failover.

Integrated AI/ML Platform

Vertex AI integrated for ML model training and inference within FedRAMP boundary. Custom pipelines for automated model deployment, monitoring, and rollback across GKE clusters.

FedRAMP Security Controls

Implemented 325+ NIST controls including encryption at rest/transit, FIPS 140-2 validated crypto, VPC Service Controls, Cloud Armor, private GKE clusters, and continuous compliance monitoring.

Infrastructure as Code

100% Terraform-managed infrastructure enabling reproducible deployments, disaster recovery, and environment parity between dev/staging/production with git-based change management.

FedRAMP Compliance Controls

NIST SP 800-53 Control Implementation

Implemented comprehensive security controls across 18 control families required for FedRAMP Moderate authorization:

Technical Controls
  • Encryption at Rest: AES-256 with FIPS 140-2 validated Cloud KMS for all data storage
  • Encryption in Transit: TLS 1.2+ with FIPS-approved ciphers for all network traffic
  • Access Control: Least-privilege IAM with MFA and context-aware access for all human users
  • Boundary Protection: VPC Service Controls enforce network perimeter, blocking data exfiltration
  • Vulnerability Scanning: Container scanning, OS patching, and automated remediation workflows
SC-8: Crypto AC-2: Access RA-5: Scanning
Operational Controls
  • Audit Logging: Cloud Logging with 1-year retention, SIEM integration, tamper-evident storage
  • Monitoring: Cloud Monitoring dashboards, alerting, and automated incident response
  • Backup & Recovery: Automated daily backups with 90-day retention and quarterly DR testing
  • Configuration Management: GitOps with automated drift detection and remediation
  • Incident Response: Documented procedures with 15-minute detection, 1-hour initial response SLA
AU-2: Audit CP-9: Backup IR-4: Incident

Kubernetes & Infrastructure Architecture

GKE Clusters

Leveraged GKE for fully-managed Kubernetes with built-in security hardening and compliance:

  • Private clusters: No public IPs, all nodes isolated in private subnets with authorized networks
  • Workload Identity: Pod-level GCP service account binding eliminating node credential exposure
  • Binary Authorization: Only signed, approved container images can run in production clusters
  • Pod Security Standards: Enforced restricted PSS policies blocking privileged containers
  • Network Policy: Calico network policies enforcing microsegmentation between namespaces

Supporting Infrastructure Services

Deployed managed GCP services to support application workloads with FedRAMP compliance:

  • Cloud SQL: PostgreSQL with HA configuration, automated backups, and private IP only
  • Cloud Memorystore: Managed Redis for session storage and application caching
  • Cloud Storage: Object storage with versioning, lifecycle policies, and CMEK encryption
  • Vertex AI: ML platform for model training, deployment, and inference
  • Cloud Load Balancing: Global HTTPS load balancer with Cloud Armor WAF
  • Cloud NAT: Managed NAT for outbound internet access without exposing nodes
Technology Stack
GKE Autopilot Terraform Cloud SQL Vertex AI Cloud Storage Memorystore VPC Service Controls Cloud Armor Cloud Logging Cloud Monitoring

Project Information

  • Company: ReliaQuest
  • Project Date: March 2024
  • Duration: 15 months
  • Status: Production
  • Role: Cloud Architect

Deployment Model

The platform follows a hub-and-spoke network topology:

  • Host Project: Shared VPC, networking, and security services
  • Service Projects: Isolated workloads with project-level IAM boundaries
  • GitOps: All changes deployed via Cloud Build CI/CD pipelines
  • DR Testing: Quarterly failover exercises validating RTO/RPO

Results & Business Impact

FedRAMP Authorization

Achieved FedRAMP Moderate ATO enabling sales to federal agencies and government contractors. Platform passed 3PAO security assessment with zero high-severity findings.

99.99% Uptime

Multi-region architecture delivered 99.99% availability across first 12 months in production. Automated failover completed successfully during us-central1 maintenance window with zero customer impact.

Rapid Feature Parity

Achieved 95% feature parity with AWS commercial offering within 6 months of production deployment. Government customers receive same capabilities as commercial users.

Key Takeaways

GKE Simplifies FedRAMP Compliance

Autopilot's opinionated, hardened-by-default configuration significantly reduced security control implementation effort. Google manages node security, patching, and upgrades - reducing our compliance burden compared to managing standard GKE clusters.

VPC Service Controls Are Essential for Data Residency

Service perimeters provided strong guarantee that data cannot leave authorized GCP resources, even with compromised credentials. This control was critical for FedRAMP assessors' confidence in data residency enforcement.

Multi-Region Adds Complexity But Is Worth It

Operating across three regions increased infrastructure complexity and cost by 40%, but eliminated single points of failure and enabled sub-50ms latency for 95% of US users. Government customers demand this level of resilience.

Infrastructure as Code Is Non-Negotiable for FedRAMP

Manual changes create audit findings and configuration drift. 100% Terraform-managed infrastructure with CI/CD gates ensured every change was reviewed, tested, and documented - critical for passing continuous monitoring requirements.

Start FedRAMP Compliance Early in Architecture Phase

Attempting to retrofit FedRAMP controls onto existing architecture is exponentially harder than designing for compliance from day one. We architected with NIST controls in mind from the start, avoiding costly rework. Key decisions like VPC Service Controls, private GKE, and CMEK encryption must be baked into initial design.