Deployment guidance for Gemini for Government

This document provides technical guidance for US Federal agencies and DoD departments on deploying and using Gemini for Government in compliance with FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Level 4 (IL4) requirements. This document describes which services and features are included in the authorization boundaries and the steps to help you meet your compliance obligations.

Gemini for Government uses Assured Workloads to help with compliance requirements. You must deploy all Gemini for Government resources within an Assured Workloads folder that's configured for your specific compliance regime (FedRAMP High or IL4).

Core product dependencies

Gemini for Government relies on several Google Cloud services. The following table lists the compliance status for each service.

Google Cloud service FedRAMP High status IL4 status

Gemini Enterprise

Authorized

Authorized

Generative AI on Vertex AI

Authorized

Authorized

BigQuery

Authorized

Authorized

Cloud Storage

Authorized

Authorized

Looker (Google Cloud core)

Authorized

Submitted

Authorized services and features

The following table lists the services and features that you can use within Gemini for Government for FedRAMP High and IL4 deployments.

Feature FedRAMP High IL4

Generally available Gemini models

Authorized

Authorized

Autocomplete

Authorized

Authorized

Serving controls

Authorized

Authorized

Authorized data stores such as Cloud Storage and BigQuery

Authorized

Authorized

Web Grounding for Enterprise

Authorized

Authorized

Uploading documents from local machines

Authorized

Authorized

Ability for end users to select models

Authorized

Authorized

Unauthorized features that you should disable manually

The following services and features aren't authorized for FedRAMP High or IL4. However, they aren't blocked by the Assured Workloads control packages and are available in your project. As part of your risk assessment, you may need to carefully assess service usage relative to sensitive data and any mitigating controls available to you. You may need to manually disable the features on this list in your Gemini Enterprise application configuration based on your assessment.

Agents and galleries
Grounding
Generative features
User, session, and UI features
Other features

For more information about implicit context caching, see Vertex AI and zero data retention.

Unauthorized features that you can't disable

The following services and features are available in the Assured Workloads control package. You can't disable them. If you do use these features, you should conduct a proper risk assessment prior to granting your authorization to make sure service usage is appropriate for your FedRAMP High or IL4 deployment. For example, you could assess service usage relative to data sensitivity. You could also evaluate if any mitigating controls based on data encryption are available to you to establish sole control over data access.

Agents and galleries

To remove availability for these agents, contact our sales team or your Google Cloud representative.

Analytics and dependent features
Data connectors and stores
User, session, and UI features
Other features

Deploy your environment

Follow these steps for assistance with deploying an environment that meets your compliance obligations:

  1. Deploy Assured Workloads:
    1. Create an Assured Workloads folder that uses Data Boundary for FedRAMP High or Data Boundary for IL4.
    2. Create your Google Cloud project inside this folder.
    3. Verify that all users and service accounts have the required Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions.
  2. Create a Gemini Enterprise app. Select US Multi-region as the location. The Assured Workloads data residency policy enforces this option.
  3. Connect to a Google data source that's located within your Assured Workloads folder. The authorized data stores for FedRAMP High and IL4 are Cloud Storage buckets and BigQuery datasets.

  4. Configure authorized compliance features.

  5. Turn off the unauthorized features that are described in unauthorized features that you should disable manually.

  6. Train your personnel not to use unauthorized features that you can't disable.