What is a Third-Party Assessment Organization (3PAO)?

A Third-Party Assessment Organization (3PAO) is an independent auditor accredited by the FedRAMP Program Management Office to assess cloud service providers for FedRAMP compliance. 3PAO’s are also specially authorized to conduct GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) audits.

Under the previous FedRAMP Revision 5 model, 3PAOs evaluate a CSP’s security controls, conduct testing, and produce a Security Assessment Report (SAR) to determine whether the cloud service meets FedRAMP security requirements. By providing an objective assessment of a provider’s security posture, they play a key role in the FedRAMP authorization process. However, their role is likely to change under FedRAMP 20x.