Exostar announces release of Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365

Exostar has announced the release of Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365, the latest extension of The Exostar Platform. Working closely with Microsoft, Exostar built the Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365 application to expand upon Microsoft 365’s core collaboration capabilities to meet the specific needs of enterprises collaborating with their partners in highly-regulated industries.

The bar for information sharing and protection in these industries continues to rise in response to more frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks targetting the weakest links in the enterprise’s partner ecosystem. Enterprises and their partners across the value chain must comply with increasingly diverse and robust standards and frameworks, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and clauses in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) that incorporate controls, practices and processes found in Special Publication 800-171 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST SP 800-171) and the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). While Microsoft 365 makes it easy for individuals to collaborate with one another, enterprises must adhere to these organisation-based mandates, along with their internal risk management processes for intra- and inter-enterprise communication.

“To lead in the age of digital transformation, enterprises and their partners must possess the tools to agilely and productively engage from anywhere, at any time, but this posture opens the door to cyber compromise of sensitive information and intellectual property,” said Vijay Takanti, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Informatics, Exostar.

He added, “Risk mitigation and compliance measures may close the door, but they can’t do so by locking out collaboration. Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365 preserves the power and simplicity of Microsoft 365, extending those principles to meet and manage the B2B collaboration functional, performance, security and compliance requirements of enterprises in highly-regulated industries.”

Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365 builds around the simplicity and compelling user experience of Microsoft 365 while delivering the additional features and management functions that save enterprises time and money, establish and reinforce trust, and promote security and compliance as their partner ecosystems and potential vulnerabilities grow:

• Managed and secure collaboration environment for Microsoft 365 tenants within The Exostar Platform, residing on Microsoft 365 (Commercial) and Microsoft 365 Government (GCC High), incorporating custom policy and governance rules for enterprise security accounting for risk guidelines and industry standards, and providing best practices for collaboration
• Vetting and highly-scalable onboarding of enterprises and partners to the Exostar community, regardless of the size of the partner ecosystem
• Identity proofing and credentialing with a variety of strengths and options for all enterprise and partner users
• Ongoing identity management, including authentication and conditional access controls, based on organisational affinity and user attributes continuously collected and maintained by Exostar
• Controlled Microsoft Teams creation with pre-configured security policies and templates; pre-configured roles for teams management and security
• Seamless user invitation across the 150,000-organisation Exostar community, regardless of whether partners possess their own Microsoft 365 tenants; structured collaboration based on governance templates tied to the data being exchanged.

“Enterprises in highly-regulated industries require B2B collaboration solutions enabling ubiquitous sharing with their customers, partners and the supply chain with multi-layered data protection policies to secure their highly-sensitive information,” said Richard Wakeman, Senior Director, Aerospace and Defence, Microsoft Azure Global engineering.

He also said, “With the introduction of Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365, Exostar has added an additional layer of data protection to integrate with our technology for secure B2B collaboration.”

Enterprises can purchase the Exostar Secure Access for Microsoft 365 application, as well as other modules in The Exostar Platform.