What you ask is the DISA UC APL? The United States Department of Defense (DoD) Unified Capabilities (UC) Approved Products List (APL) is a list that defines which products are certified for DoD-wide purchase. I am very proud to announce that this month DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) announced that EMC’s VMAX storage array has been added to the list.
EMC VMAX is the first enterprise-class storage array to be listed on the DISA UC APL. We undertook this rigorous certification effort as part of our ongoing commitment to build and certify storage for even the most data sensitive customers.
This listing on the UC APL not only helps to inform DoD agencies that VMAX meets DISA’s demanding security and functional requirements, but it allows any organization that has rigorous standards for security, high availability, and performance to have 3rd party assurance in the ability of VMAX to meet theirs as well.
This certification is not only important for those within the Department of Defense – it specifies which products DoD agencies may purchase when they build their technology infrastructure – but, because of what it takes to get on the list, it is of significance to anyone who is building or maintains mission critical infrastructure. What does it really take to get on the list? For a product to be listed on the UC APL, it must be certified though two types of testing – Information Assurance (IA) and Interoperability (IO). This testing is an extensive process with specialized equipment over many weeks and is important to any organization that cares about security, high availability, and performance.
- Information Assurance Testing – This validates the security of the product – ensuring the product meets DoD security requirements and best practices, as well as documenting other security certifications such as Common Criteria and Federal Information Processing Standards 140-2. This testing also includes penetration testing and other tests for security weaknesses to ensure that it can safely be deployed in government data centers.
- Interoperability Testing – This not only ensures a product works with those of many other vendors, but it also tests to ensure the product meets the functional needs of the Department of Defense including high availability, performance and quality of service.
The complete list of products on the UC APL is available at https://aplits.disa.mil/processAPList.do
