VMware Exits FedRAMP Government Cloud Business -

QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS) has acquired VMware vCloud Government Service, a FedRAMP compliant cloud solution. QTS and VMware had previously partnered on the service. But QTS will have complete control over the government compliant cloud going forward.

According to a QTS statement:

"Through this agreement, QTS will now wholly own and control the infrastructure supporting the QTS Government Cloud. Although this is not a material financial transaction, it will provide QTS with expanded flexibility and control in delivering the QTS Government Cloud solution and provide the exclusive rights to sell both directly and through a broader array of sales channels."

This is the second small exit that VMware has completed in recent months. The virtualization specialist in September sold its vRealize Business Enterprise and IT Benchmarking tools to Skyview Capital, a private equity firm. Much of VMware's focus going forward involves multi-cloud management tools -- along with the accelerating NSX and VSAN businesses.

For much of 2016, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger has been repositioning the company away from head-on competition with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

QTS Expands Government IT Focus

QTS, meanwhile, continues to expand its government-focused IT activities. QTS says it will continue meeting FedRAMP compliance requirements. And the company's government cloud also is authorized to host Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 2 (IL2) workloads.

On a related note, QTS acquired Carpathia Hosting in May 2016. That $326 million deal focused heavily on compliance- and security-focused IaaS services.

Still, QTS isn't alone in the federal cloud market. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure each have earned varying FedRAMP and government compliance honors.