MongoDB Commits to FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Level 5 Authorizations
June 30, 2025
I’m pleased to announce that today, MongoDB is taking the next step in our commitment to the U.S. public sector by pursuing Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High and Impact Level 5 (IL5) authorizations for MongoDB Atlas for Government.
Obtaining these advanced authorizations, set by FedRAMP and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), will expand MongoDB’s ability to support the U.S. public sector’s most sensitive and mission-critical workloads. These authorizations are essential for agencies and other federal entities handling highly sensitive data. This includes information related to national security, law enforcement, and emergency response. MongoDB Atlas for Government, with its existing FedRAMP Moderate authorization, already enables public sector organizations to meet evolving cybersecurity mandates and to accelerate their migration of legacy applications to the cloud.
What are FedRAMP High and Impact Level 5 authorizations?
The cloud sits at the center of many public sector organizations’ priority lists as they strive to modernize legacy applications and migrate workloads. To mitigate severe risks to operations, assets, and individuals, FedRAMP mandates protective standards for these agencies to follow when partnering with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).
In particular, agencies that handle highly sensitive, unclassified data, especially in areas such as national security, law enforcement, and emergency response, are required to meet FedRAMP’s High Baseline. This standard includes 421 stringent security controls designed to protect data related to life and safety.
Impact Level 5 (IL5) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) certification that authorizes CSPs to securely store and process some of the DoD’s highly sensitive data. The DoD uses an “Impact Level” system to classify data by its sensitivity and the potential impact of a data breach. IL5 authorization supports unclassified, yet highly sensitive information that requires strong protections. An IL5 certification permits verified vendors to handle Controlled Unclassified Information, mission-critical details, and data related to national security systems.
MongoDB Atlas for Government is currently authorized at FedRAMP Moderate Baseline, which offers the U.S. public sector a dedicated, secure environment for deploying, managing, and scaling applications in the cloud. Attaining FedRAMP High and IL5 authorization will extend MongoDB’s capabilities to support agencies handling acutely sensitive and critical workloads with the highest compliance standards.
MongoDB Atlas for Government: Driving cloud and AI adoption in the public sector
MongoDB Atlas for Government is an independent, dedicated version of MongoDB Atlas. It is designed specifically to meet the unique needs of the U.S. public sector and independent software vendors (ISVs) developing government solutions. This AI-ready database provides the versatility and scalability required to modernize legacy applications and migrate workloads to the cloud. It operates in a secure, fully managed environment that is authorized at the FedRAMP Moderate level.
MongoDB Atlas for Government is the most versatile means by which the U.S. public sector can deploy, run, and scale workloads in the cloud. With Atlas for Government, public sector organizations and ISVs can:
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Accelerate time to mission: Move rapidly with a database designed for developer productivity with broad workload support.
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Achieve multi-cloud flexibility and resilience: Distribute data across multiple cloud providers to meet an organization’s specific needs while optimizing for performance, cost, and resilience.
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Scale critical workloads reliably: Ensure high availability with automated backup and data recovery options, and scale on demand to meet changing needs.
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Protect sensitive data confidently: Meet strict government security standards with a platform that is secure by default, FedRAMP Moderate Authorized, and trusted for handling criminal justice information (CJIS).
MongoDB Atlas for Government combines the full functionality of MongoDB’s document database with a powerful suite of data services, including Atlas Search, Vector Search, and more. This unified, multi-cloud database supports a broad range of use cases, including the creation of AI-powered applications, mobile development, transactional workloads, real-time analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, and single customer views.
Atlas for Government maintains business continuity and minimizes downtime by ensuring robust resilience and comprehensive disaster recovery. Public sector organizations have the peace of mind that data is always protected, given the ~99.995% uptime SLA, auto-scaling to handle data consumption fluctuations, and automated backup and recovery.
How the State of Utah used MongoDB to meet a statewide mandate
The State of Utah’s Electronic Resource and Eligibility Product (eREP) is a mission-critical software system that helps caseworkers determine eligibility for public benefits programs across one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S. To comply with a statewide mandate, the Utah Department of Technology Services needed to migrate eREP off legacy on-premises infrastructure and into a FedRAMP-compliant cloud environment.
The department chose MongoDB Atlas for Government and used cluster-to-cluster sync to migrate from its on-premises data center with minimal disruption. The move to a fully managed, secure cloud database platform delivered immediate performance and operational gains:
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25% faster benefits calculations and document retrievals
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Significantly reduced management overhead for database architects
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Disaster recovery time cut from 58 hours to less than 5 minutes
“It’s much less cumbersome to maintain our databases now that we’re using fully managed MongoDB Atlas for Government,” said Manoj Gangwar, Principal Data Architect at the Utah Department of Technology Services. Indeed, State of Utah database architects no longer have to manage shards, configurations, or load balancing. They can spend their time on more important developments, such as upgrading the rule engine at the backend of the eREP solution.
With automated backups and improved resilience, eREP now delivers better service to Utah’s roughly 3.5 million citizens. It also reduces the burden on the Department of Technology Services’ IT staff. This frees up resources for modernization and innovation. Learn more here.
Expanding secure cloud support with advanced authorizations
FedRAMP High and IL5 authorizations are required by many public sector organizations to work securely with cloud service providers. Attaining these authorizations enables MongoDB Atlas for Government to support those highly regulated organizations.
With these approvals, government agencies aiming to modernize outdated databases and embrace cloud technology will be able to rely on MongoDB Atlas for Government for secure, fully managed, and compliant operations tailored to meet stringent regulatory standards. Visit the MongoDB Atlas for Government webpage to learn more.