The agreement lets Azure-based applications tap into Knox’s compliance platform to get authorized in as little as 90 days. Knox Systems has converted a financial partnership with Microsoft into a business partnership that can help companies building cloud-based applications to get FedRAMP-authorized more quickly.
Microsoft participated in Knox’s Series A capital round, which was announced in March.
The two companies announced a business partnership Wednesday that lets developers use Knox’s FedRAMP compliance platform to build applications in Microsoft Azure.
“There is a healthy pipeline of companies that are built on Azure that previously have been locked out of serving the federal government,” CEO Irina Denisenko told WT.
Knox holds 16 federal and Defense Department authorities-to-operate, while close to 70 software companies use Knox’s ATOs to get the FedRAMP authorization.
Knox’s roots go back to when it managed the ATO for Adobe. From there, Knox opened its pre-authorized federal managed cloud to others who can use its infrastructure and compliance apparatus to achieve FedRAMP certification.
The company had roughly 20 customers in March compared to the current number of 70. Denisenko said that number should hit 100 by the end of the year with the Microsoft partnership.
As the government pushes for more commercial technologies, the demand for Knox’s services is increasing because they can shorten the length of time to become FedRAMP certified to as little as 90 days.
Getting to 100 FedRAMP-certified apps on the Knox platform is just the beginning for Knox. Denisenko estimated that 30,000 apps are built across the hyperscalers that federal buyers cannot access because they do not meet security standards.
Only about 500 applications currently have the FedRAMP certification and about 300 of those are at the moderate-to high impact levels.
“We’ve got to be at least in the low thousands as a country to say we’re even approaching parity to what the commercial marketplace has,” she said.
The partnership with Azure is not the only one. In June, Knox formed a similar partnership with Google Public Sector. Knox also wants to work with Amazon Web Services.
Denisenko likened the big hyperscalers to utility companies. They have secured their infrastructure, but do not certify the applications built on top of it.
That is where Knox comes in to certify that the application meets FedRAMP requirements.
“At the end of the day, the mission of Knox is to unlock access to cutting edge technology for the U.S. government,” Denisenko said. “We want to do that wherever technology is. Some is built on Google, some on Azure and some on AWS. We want to meet those companies where they are.”
]]>
