What type of certifications should solution providers look for?

To be able to market vendor products to the U.S. federal government, there are varying certification requirements depending on the type of product and the government agency, among many other things.  So solution providers should select vendors who are committed to achieving these certifications and who have products that can meet the requirements.  Achieving and maintaining certifications -- such as Joint Interoperability Test Command (JTIC), Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, Common Criteria, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Validation -- requires a huge investment by the vendor.