Elon Musk Provides Context on Make vs Buy in the Federal Ecosystem

ctovision | March 04, 2020

Every large enterprise faces decisions on whether to code something using internal talent, code something using contractors, or buy a commercial product. For complex and sometimes hard to understand or explain reasons, the government has always had a hard time optimizing on these decisions. As we have been writing on extensively over the last several years, the federal government has a long history and a large compilation of lessons learned in this type of make vs buy decision.

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Emerging Technology

Pexip Government Cloud Attains StateRAMP Authorization

PR Newswire | August 07, 2023

Pexip, a company that provides multi-platform software video technology, announced that its Pexip Government Cloud (PGC) Cloud Service Offering (CSO) has received StateRAMP Authorized status in the Moderate security categorization from the StateRAMP Project Management Office (PMO) and the StateRAMP Approvals Committee (SAC). In April, Pexip received an Authority to Operate (ATO) at the Moderate Impact level from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. The StateRAMP Authorization enables secure and compliant collaboration for state and local agencies on Microsoft Teams. Employees can easily join Microsoft Teams calls using Cloud Video Interop (CVI) from video conferencing systems in meeting rooms or from personal devices, whether from the office or home making collaboration seamless an efficient. Pexip also enables state and local agencies to manage their existing video infrastructure investments, making it a cost-effective solution. "We are very excited about our StateRAMP authorization and believe it represents another great example of Pexip's commitment to delivering secure and compliant solutions to our government customers," said Peter McCarthy, VP of Public Sector, Pexip. As agencies move to the cloud, Pexip stands ready to support them at every stage. The StateRAMP-authorized Pexip Government Cloud (PGC) platform offers secure video conferencing as a service, ensuring agencies can engage in productive collaboration while adhering to rigorous security standards. For agencies with the most stringent security requirements, such as On-Premise mandates or GCC-High Teams Tenants, Pexip offers the option to self-host its software. This enables complete data control and interoperability within these specialized environments. Pexips StateRAMP approval is a testament to its commitment to delivering safe and compliant solutions to its government customers. Pexip's StateRAMP approval includes: US Department of Defense (DoD) Unified Capabilities Approved Product List (UC APL) authorized Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) validated Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 module #3503 ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified Section 508 compliant General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant Supports Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance Supports zero trust security architectures About Pexips Pexip enables enterprises and organizations of any size to deploy and use video-based communication and collaboration. The Company’s portfolio of products ranges from self-hosted software to cloud service video solutions. Pexip provides seamless collaboration between previously incompatible video and audio technologies such as professional video conferencing systems, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meet, and WebRTC. Pexip’s software-based meeting platform can also be used as a foundation for service provider offerings. Pexip has HQ in Oslo, Norway, main offices in London, UK, New York and Reston, US and Sydney, Australia, as well as sales offices across the globe.

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Emerging Technology

NewSpring Holdings Reenters Government Services Space, Launches New Platform with Acquisition of Bridge Core

PR Newswire | July 31, 2023

NewSpring Holdings leverages proven organic growth strategies and a disciplined M&A process to accelerate growth in sector-specific markets, including logistics, fin-tech, government services, IT services, and sports. The team has completed over 40 acquisitions and successfully built a government services platform, Avantus Federal,which recently sold for$590M.NewSpring("the Firm"), a family of private equity strategies, announced today that NewSpring Holdings, the Firm's majority investment strategy focused on sector-specific platform builds, has acquiredBridge Core, a leading provider of visual intelligence, cybersecurity, and other technical solutions to the U.S. government intelligence community. Bridge Core will use the proceeds of this transaction to execute a disciplined M&A and aggressive organic growth strategy to create a full-spectrum, technology-enabled intelligence company. Alongside this transaction, Chad Kim has been named CEO of Bridge Core. Chad has spent over two decades supporting the intelligence community and interagency task force apparatus in diverse worldwide roles spanning from operations to analysis. This has provided Chad with a unique breadth of experience, mission intimacy, and relevant capability expertise. He also has an extensive track record in scaling organizations capable of building industry-disrupting technology for defense, intelligence, and commercial clients, most recently with former NewSpring portfolio company Avantus Federal. Bridge Core founders Tyler Laverick and Andy Rackovan will stay on with the company in key leadership roles. "In the creation of a full-spectrum intelligence company, we're proud to begin our journey with Bridge Core, a company whose values and culture are closely aligned with my own and the team at NewSpring," said Kim. "Bridge Core treats its team members like family, fosters a strong work ethic, and consistently delivers mission impact in a nurturing environment that attracts and retains the best talent in the industry. Tyler and Andy have built an amazing company filled with savvy technologists and intelligence professionals, and we're thrilled to continue growing this business alongside them." Bridge Core leverages a unique tech-to-mission concept, agility, and speed in delivering services that drive true value for its intelligence agency clients. Established expertise in visual intelligence, technology transfer, cybersecurity, and technical operations positions Bridge Core well to add on additional services and expand into a full-service agency serving a broad range of needs facing the intelligence community. "An era of rapidly proliferating and converging data presents unique, evolving challenges for the intelligence community. More than ever, we see the crucial role of a holistic solutions partner capable of elevating the transformation of data into precise and impactful insights for the numerous mission sets of the U.S. government.," said NewSpring General Partner Lee Garber. "Our partnership with Bridge Core, a true market leader, aligns with our core vision to innovate within the national security space, where there is significant growth potential. Combined with Chad's leadership and extensive experience delivering mission outcomes with technology in the intelligence community, we're excited for the future of this business." "In 2015, Andy and I set out to build a company focused on empowering and fostering a transparent culture, giving everyone a seat at the table to define our success," said Bridge Core Cofounder Tyler Laverick. "Eight years later, we realized it was time to join forces with a team that embodied what we built at Bridge Core and have found the perfect partner in NewSpring to help scale this business and further raise our impact on critical intelligence missions. We're excited about this new era for Bridge Core and look forward to taking this business to the next level." About NewSpring NewSpring partners with the innovators, makers, and operators of high-performing companies in dynamic industries to catalyze new growth and seize compelling opportunities. The Firm manages over $3.0 billion across five distinct strategies covering the spectrum from growth equity and control buyouts to mezzanine debt. Having invested in over 200 companies, NewSpring brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and resources to take growing companies to the next level and beyond. Partnering with management teams to help develop their businesses into market leaders, NewSpring identifies opportunities and builds relationships using its network of industry leaders and influencers across a wide array of operational areas and industries. To learn more, visit www.newspringcapital.com. About Bridge Core Bridge Core is a federal services company built on a culture of trust and teamwork to advance the mission through innovation and passionate people. The Bridge Core team of experts enable Mission Partners by integrating innovative technologies and implementing processes that modernize the digital workplace. The Company's trusted, skilled, and diverse team members make a lasting impact by building tailored, client-focused solutions within secured spaces. The Bridge Core team facilitates the rapid adoption of technologies and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions through a unique understanding of mission requirements and the vendor's product(s).

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Cybersecurity

Semperis and Carahsoft Partner to Provide Comprehensive Identity Security and Recovery Solutions to U.S. Government Organizations

Business Wire | September 12, 2023

Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience, and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Semperis’ Public Sector Distributor, making the company’s industry-leading identity resilience platform available to the Public Sector through Carahsoft’s reseller partners and National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint, National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA), and OMNIA Partners contracts. Active Directory (AD) and Azure AD (now Entra ID), used by 90% of organizations worldwide to authenticate and access critical applications and services, are under sustained attack in the Public Sector by numerous threat actors. The Semperis and Carahsoft partnership will accelerate delivery of comprehensive identity threat detection and response (ITDR) solutions for protecting hybrid AD environments across U.S. Public Sector entities. “Our partnership with Carahsoft will further expand adoption of our identity-first security solutions designed to help Federal, State and Local Government agencies protect their critical identity systems from ransomware and other directory-related attacks,” said Jared Vichengrad, Vice President, Public Sector at Semperis. “We are excited to join Carahsoft’s trusted partner network of Government IT solution providers to prevent, detect and mitigate proliferating identity attacks that are disrupting operations in the Public Sector.” Identity-related attacks on Public Sector entities are intensifying in scale and severity amidst an expanding digital attack surface and increasingly sophisticated attack techniques. Verizon’s 2023 DBIR reveals that from November 1, 2021, through October 31, 2022, public administration entities faced 3,273 incidents—and of those, 584 with confirmed data disclosure. The Public Sector is a high-value target for cyber criminals who seek to disrupt State and Local Governments, schools and public utilities in record numbers. These attacks can steal or encrypt data, disturb services and jeopardize public safety. Public Sector organizations are particularly vulnerable to AD attacks because of legacy infrastructure, lack of identity security expertise and limited resources. With a multi-layered defense approach that spans the identity attack lifecycle, Semperis offers the industry’s most comprehensive security and recovery solutions for hybrid AD environments, combined with deep incident response expertise. “We are thrilled to partner with Semperis and our reseller network to offer its identity resilience platform, provide advanced ITDR solutions and protect Public Sector customers’ hybrid AD systems from attacks,” said Brian O’Donnell, Vice President of Cybersecurity solutions at Carahsoft. “We repeatedly see how vital it is to prevent bad actors from infiltrating Government systems and how having the right solutions on board can make a significant impact in remediation. We are committed helping Public Sector organizations get access to Semperis solutions to safeguard citizens’ data and facilitate uninterrupted Public Sector services.” Semperis’ technology and services are available through Carahsoft’s NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement #AR2472, NCPA Contract NCPA01-86, and OMNIA Partners Contract #R191902. For more information, contact the Semperis team at Carahsoft at (703) 889-9808 or Semperis@carahsoft.com. The dedicated Cybersecurity team at Carahsoft specializes in providing Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare organizations with security solutions to safeguard their cyber ecosystem. To learn more about Carahsoft’s Cybersecurity solutions, visit www.carahsoft.com/solve/cybersecurity. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Customer Experience and Engagement, and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. About Semperis For security teams charged with defending hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Semperis ensures the integrity and availability of critical enterprise directory services at every step in the cyber kill chain and cuts recovery time by 90%. Purpose-built for securing hybrid Active Directory environments, Semperis’ patented technology protects over 50 million identities from cyberattacks, data breaches, and operational errors. The world’s leading organizations trust Semperis to spot directory vulnerabilities, intercept cyberattacks in progress, and quickly recover from ransomware and other data integrity emergencies. Semperis is headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, and operates internationally, with its research and development team distributed throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel.

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