CDSA

Air-gapped collaboration tools can help defense industries deal with sensitive information that, if leaked, could compromise national security, according to Bluescape, Pexip and Rocket.Chat.

When commanders and ground operators want to exchange classified information securely, a “self-hosted, air-gapped environment is the way to go,” the companies said in announcing the Feb. 20 webinar “Air-Gapped Collaboration,” a joint presentation of the three firms.

Air-gapped collaboration tools ensure a high level of security by isolating sensitive data from unsecured networks, empowering users to communicate securely without compromising the security of mission-critical data, according to the companies.

Pexip is a provider of interoperability between video meeting solutions.

Rocket.Chat is an open source communications platform designed for organizations that need more control over their communications. It enables collaboration between colleagues, partners, customers, communities and even platforms without any compromises on data ownership, customizations or integrations, according to Rocket.Chat.

During the webinar, Steve Pryor, director of EMEA sales and partnerships at Bluescape, and other speakers from the three companies, addressed how air-gapped collaboration tools also  streamline chats, meetings, projects and whiteboarding in one unified environment

“I think, from my side, it’s …  great … to come together with the other two organizations to provide that on-premise air gap solution, according to Pryor. “Many tools are available at a cloud level, but once you move up the security stack, it’s really important to be able to deliver that capability at the higher levels as well,” he said.

He went on to say: “Just to introduce BlueScape, so we’re a secure visual intelligence solution that brings together people with all of the content that’s related to a particular project or task or meeting and enables them to make informed decisions quickly by having all of that information in a single space, in a single class.”

Pryor added: “We  really we make it easy to share that information. So we’re much more than just a white boarding product. We’re able to bring all of that intelligence together, so that you get real-time situational awareness and are able to immerse yourself in all of the different data sets. Whether that’s documents and information. Whether that’s web feeds and live video streams, or whether it’s using our API to interact and link to external applications, AI applications, machine learning applications, that can bring that data into focus.”

Bluescape has a “long pedigree … [and] all of the companies have really grown up from a secure-by-design methodology. So we’re not a purely commercial product that’s been adapted to fit the different space. We’ve really grown up with some eight- plus years of experience now of servicing defense and intelligence customers with a secure solution that they can really trust with their data.”

Bluescape’s air-gapped solutions have been “deployed in a a variety of different environments, [including] public cloud, private cloud, and on-premise air gap solutions,” he noted.

Last year, Bluescape “reached FedRAMP certification,” which he said “allows government departments to purchase BlueScape securely in a government cloud environment.”

He went on to say: “Rather than starting off with a blank canvas, you can use our pre-built templates to streamline your workflows and get work done much more quickly by bringing in those strategic flowcharts and operational workflows to help you build out the solution.”