Summit 7, AvePoint Partner to Address CMMC Recovery Requirements; Scott Edwards Quoted

Summit 7 Systems announced a partnership with AvePoint on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.

“This collaboration between AvePoint and Summit 7 will not only meet technical requirements for those protecting the country’s most sensitive data, but will enhance businesses’ preparedness against ransomware and other advanced persistent threats,” said Scott Edwards, president of Summit 7 Systems.

Following the launch of DFARS 7012 DoD released CMMC, which has expanded upon NIST 800-171 cybersecurity framework. Under CMMC, contractors within the defense industrial base are required to provide comprehensive and resilient system recovery capabilities.

Most notably, CMMC will require suppliers to  recover from any event that compromises the integrity and availability of data. These requirements are included for contractors looking to certify at Level 2, 3, 4 and 5.

At the address, Summit 7 delivered an educational overview of the Recovery (RE) Domain and provided backup strategies for CUI and other company proprietary data as 30 percent of business and IT leaders reported that their respective companies did not have a backup strategy or were unaware of one.

Summit 7 also reported that defense contractors have commonly relied on Microsoft 365 GCC High as their primary information system. The system is one of the few cloud platforms capable of meeting the data residency and reporting requirements of DFARS 7012 and ITAR.

AvePoint was reported to be a leading backup software for Microsoft 365 GCC High in March 2020 and conducted degrees of testing and design reviews to finalize the company’s solutions.

Summit 7’s has launched a platform that has integrated AvePoint Cloud Backup. AvePoint’s system will place Microsoft 365 backups and other data sources in a well architected and compliant enclave within the client’s respective Azure Government tenant.

AvePoint Multi-Geo support for Office 365 will backup data that can be stored, retained, processed, security trimmed and managed entirely in-country and will guarantee data security and sovereignty.

“CMMC and its data availability requirements are critical to mission resiliency,” said John Peluso, chief technical officer, AvePoint Public Sector. “Our Cloud Backup solution and partnership with Summit 7 Systems meets those requirements, while allowing contractors and agencies to backup advanced Office 365 workloads.”

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Potomac Officers Club will host its CMMC Virtual Forum 2020 on June 24th. Click here to register for the event.

Katie Arrington, chief information security officer at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, will serve as a keynote speaker at the CMMC Forum 2020. She will address the CMMC’s timeline, how the certification process could change and will provide a memorandum of understanding with a newly established CMMC accrediting body.

A full expert panel will include Ty Schieber, senior director of executive education and CMMC-AB chairman of the University of Virginia and Richard Naylor of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) among other members of the federal sector and industry.

Register here to join Potomac Officers Club for its CMMC Virtual Forum 2020 on June 24th to learn about the impact DoD’s CMMC will have on cybersecurity practices, supply chain security and other aspects of the federal market.