Beyond Identity Accelerates Path to FedRAMP Certification with RapidFort, Slashing Time and Costs
Partnership fast-tracks access to government markets and simplifies compliance
SAN FRANCISCO, April 09, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RapidFort, the fastest growing cybersecurity company securing the global software supply chain, has partnered with Beyond Identity, a leading provider of identity and access management solutions, to reduce the time and costs of FedRAMP certification. By working together with RapidFort, Beyond Identity shortened the certification process by three months and cut associated costs by 50%, outperforming alternative approaches and cementing its credibility in the government sector.
"RapidFort was an excellent and comprehensive partner during our FedRAMP journey," says Borislav Ivanov, Engineering Manager, Site Reliability Engineering at Beyond Identity. "They cut the cost of image hardening and SSDLC efforts by 50%, shaved three months off our overall compliance timeline, and delivered outstanding support every step of the way."
Achieving FedRAMP certification is a crucial and complex process for any organization looking to provide solutions to the federal government, demanding extensive documentation, security testing, and ongoing compliance efforts. Beyond Identity wanted to streamline this process and reduce overall certification costs, all without overburdening its engineering team.
RapidFort played a critical role in helping Beyond Identity earn its certification, while achieving its budgetary and process goals in 3 key ways:
Simplified the compliance process with pre-hardened, near-zero CVE Curated Images aligned with NIST 800-70, FIPS 140-2, and 140-3 standards, establishing a secure foundation, and cutting through a significant portion of the initial compliance work.
Streamlined the benchmarking process with their automated scanning tools, ensuring Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) hardened applications.
Automatically generated the necessary compliance documentation, including Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), further reducing labor-intensive work.
"Our customers are developing cutting-edge security solutions for both the private and public sectors, so it's imperative that their offerings are approved for government use as quickly as possible," said Mehran Farimani, CEO of RapidFort. "We're proud to be setting the industry standard for FedRAMP certification support, streamlining a traditionally formidable process, and strengthening the infrastructure that helps secure our nation."
RapidFort, already available through Platform One, Tradewind Marketplace, AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and Carahsoft, provides a reliable and efficient pathway for organizations looking to enter the federal marketplace and drive growth in the government sector. For more information about the RapidFort platform, please visit: https://www.rapidfort.com/
About RapidFort
RapidFort offers a cybersecurity platform that streamlines and secures modern infrastructure. Their innovative approach allows organizations to continuously monitor and minimize their software attack surface, ultimately improving their security posture and operational efficiency. RapidFort empowers development and security teams with a free tier and free community images, making it easy to get started with secure software development. Learn more about RapidFort at https://www.rapidfort.com/.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250409859559/en/
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I think one of the biggest challenges is that a lot of people make assumptions about what this might look like, and they don't want to give it a try. There's a real worry about losing the humanity part of school or about not having as much interaction with friends. MacKenzie Price: What we found, as part of educating a broader audience, is that you have a kindergarten mom asking, 'What is the point of school? What does my kid need to learn for the next 12 years if you have everything at your fingertips?' You have computer science majors at Stanford questioning, 'Is my job going to exist in two years? What can I do?' You have law schools asking, 'How are we supposed to teach our lawyers when a brief can be written automatically?' Nowadays, it's no longer just about the three Rs — reading, writing and arithmetic — it's about the four Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. We've shown that you don't need to sit in class all day plus hours of homework to crush academics. So the question becomes, 'What do you do with all of this extra time?' and 'How are humans going to continue to stay on the frontier of creativity when AI knows the black-and-white facts of the world so far?' Alex Mathew: I think another challenge or worry is that students might become too dependent on AI. And so the way to not become dependent on AI is to use it and beat AI. In high school, we actually have a workshop called How Can You Beat AI? In your masterpiece project — I can get to the masterpiece later — one of the biggest goals is to become a true expert in the project that you're building. If AI knows the same amount you do, you're only at the same level. Your goal is to be better than AI. One of the things we're always ourselves asking is, 'How can you be insightful and create new knowledge?' 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Students can choose their own personal projects, like what Alex mentioned. One of my colleagues collaborates with the Williamson County Police Department, where they have tons of audio and video evidence that they need to process. The students use the AI skills they learned in the classroom to analyze that evidence. So it can be very service and experience based, applied directly in the real world. BJORN Billhardt: I saw a cartoon recently where three people are standing on a beach. One says, "But what about cheating?" Another says, "AI can't draw hands," and another says, "AI can't do math," while a huge tsunami wave labeled "AI" looms in the background. It's going to happen. The best analogy I have is from 1998 when the internet first came out. Everyone worried, 'oh no, now anyone can post an answer key online.' But we figured it out. We still have tests. We learned how to incorporate that new technology while keeping the human element in education. Nowadays, you can't imagine doing a school project without internet research. We adjusted, and I think we'll be able to do the same with AI. MacKenzie Price: A lot of people, when they think about AI and learning, think of a chatbot, right? That's actually the one thing we don't use in our education model. Instead, we're using AI as the underlying platform that monitors the level, accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of what the student is learning. We believe that kids now have the ability to put knowledge into their brain almost like Neo in "The Matrix." It can be put in very efficiently. So we take the approach of getting that academic knowledge in quickly, and then spending the afternoons applying it in project-based ways. We don't have homework, so it's not like kids are going home and asking ChatGPT to write essays for them. They're doing their academic work in the morning, and then we're able to incorporate all the proven learning science techniques — spaced repetition, rapid feedback, regular quizzing — that help kids learn without cheating. Abby Mellott: Alex, let's transition to you. Tell us about your journey from public school to Alpha School and what it was like moving from one end of the spectrum to the other. Alex Mathew: Yeah, very wild experience. At my traditional school, I spent about eight hours a day in class, learning the normal way — teacher at the front of the room, students at their desks. Then I'd go home and spend another three or four hours locked in my room trying to study, finish homework, and complete all these busywork assignments. After that, I would try to cram in all the things I actually loved doing, like hanging out with friends or exploring what my passion is. I would end up losing a lot of sleep, and every day felt like I was changing my focus. I was struggling on the academic side, and on the passion side and being present with my friends and family. Overall, it was just a bad quality of life. I was also just so tired of being defined by this one metric — grades — and constantly comparing my grades with my friends. It turned into this toxic feedback loop. When I heard about Alpha, I was like, 'I have to go there.' What really stood out was the focus on process-based learning and actually learning how to learn. When I came to Alpha, I was reading at an eighth-grade level — even though I'm an 11th grader — but I was doing college-level math. So I could go at the pace I needed to for each subject. Now, I'm at a college level in both reading and math. But my favorite part about Alpha isn't the academics, it's the masterpiece. So a masterpiece is a passion project where you dive deep into something you love, but with the highest standards possible. We're not aiming to be the best for our age group; we're aiming to be the best in the world — like an Olympian. You can take it in any direction and go as deep as you want. When I got to Alpha, I quickly found what I was passionate about, and I'm still diving deep into that rabbit hole. Abby Mellott: Very cool to hear your story. I'm sure your parents are proud of you and glad that you convinced them you should go to Alpha. Alex Mathew: Yeah. It took a lot of convincing. Abby Mellott: Can you talk about some of the partnerships or collaborations you're working on — whether with tech companies, universities or others — to help prepare students for the job market, especially as AI continues to evolve so quickly? Dr. Ju Long: In my own classes, where I teach machine learning and generative AI, we often have to be resourceful. Universities don't have the deep pockets that major tech companies do, so we work with open-source technologies whenever possible. One company we collaborate with is GaiaNet. We also use open-source large language models like Meta's Llama, as well as many other models that are publicly available. And on the university side, we benefit from partnerships like the one we have with Microsoft. Through Azure, students receive $100 in credits, which is plenty to support a full course in a semester. MacKenzie Price: Bjorn, since we're talking about preparing students for an AI-driven market, and I know you're already leveraging AI for other purposes, are you also offering AI training as well? BJORN Billhardt: That's a good question. We really have not created a "how to use AI" course. Actually, I feel that a lot of the AI courses out there right now might be less effective than they appear to be at first. I often compare it to when the Internet first became popular. Back in 1997, there were tons of courses on "how to use the Internet," but in the end, it was really just about learning how to search online. I feel like a lot of today's AI courses are similar — focused on things like how to write a good prompt. That's valuable, but it's a five-minute training, not a full course or curriculum. So I predict that, just like there's no degree in Internet Studies today, we probably won't see a degree or full curriculum in AI Studies. MacKenzie Price: I don't think there will be either. But what we focus on with our students is helping them become AI-first in everything they do. I think that's going to be the biggest shift moving forward. We've actually partnered on an initiative called Gauntlet AI — it's a 12-week boot camp program. Our first cohort ranged in age from 17 to 54, and after just 12 weeks, many of them graduated with $200,000 job offers waiting for them. Corporations want AI-first people, not because they've graduated in AI Studies, but because they can go be expert marketers, coders, or entrepreneurs. That's what's so exciting — giving people the durable skills they need. And that's exactly what we want for our students: to go into whatever passion or interest they have and utilize AI to free up more time for the human side. BJORN Billhardt: I think the best way to prepare people is through real projects — the kind where you actually have to use AI to collaborate with others and create something, not just learn from a chatbot. As for the future of jobs, I think they're changing rapidly. STEM fields have traditionally been in high demand, but — and I may have a slight bias as a liberal arts major — I believe liberal arts skills are going to become more and more important. Skills like asking the right questions, connecting ideas across disciplines, and seeing the bigger picture will be paramount. Those are the kinds of human abilities AI won't easily replace in the next few years. MacKenzie Price: I'll share an example of that: We have a student at Alpha named Sloan who has 2 million TikTok followers. In the past, success in tech was all about knowing how to code. But Sloan realized that coding an app is the easy part; distribution is the real challenge. Building an audience is the harder, more valuable skill. Alex is leveraging this too, because if you can reach customers, the rest becomes much easier. Abby Mellott: Shifting back to you, Alex. You mentioned your passion project, which incorporates self-care, mental health and AI. Can you tell us a little more about it? Alex Mathew: Yeah, so the project I'm building is called Berry. It's an AI-powered stuffed animal you can hold and talk to about your mental health. I'm working with therapists, neuroscientists, and psychologists to design the back end, making sure all the advice Berry gives is very personalized, vetted by experts, and that it's legit. I believe that AI-powered transitional objects, like plushies, could actually be better than therapists for teens. There are numerous reasons behind this. One, teens often struggle to connect with much older therapists. Also, there's stigma around seeing a therapist, and traditional therapy can feel like a big commitment. Berry reframes support as a simple daily reflection tool — just five minutes a day — through something cute and approachable. And I believe that will genuinely improve mental health outcomes. Right now, I'm preparing to run a study with a group of 20 teens to track how Berry impacts their mental health over a six-week period. I'm also making a huge sprint toward partnering with a company like Build-A-Bear to launch a "Build-a-Berry" program that would let teens customize their Berry plushies. But my goal isn't to be the best plushie maker in the world — it's to build the best mental health tool in the world. That means focusing on the AI, rather than the manufacturing side, and finding the right partnerships to help streamline it. Abby Mellott: So is it basically a unit that sits inside the bear, like a small computer? And does it talk back to you? Alex Mathew: Yes, it is. And it talks back to you — you can have full conversations with it. There's also an app connected to it where you can enter information about yourself, and it customizes to you. I actually set a cap on how long you can talk to Barry. It's only an hour, because I don't want it to replace real friendships. It's meant to be a supplement. And so it will remember your name and say things like, 'Mackenzie, why are you talking to me so much? You should go talk to your friends.' Abby Mellott: In a more extreme situation, would it suggest to someone that they seek out more help? Alex Mathew: So if you go on Google and type in something related to self-harm or harming others, it'll pull up the National Suicide Hotline. But the problem is that people often don't really want to take action on it. But if someone is talking about those things with Berry, there's an emergency contact system in place. It'll text or call the emergency contact you set at the beginning, and it has to be a registered adult. In the future, I want Barry to be free for schools and covered by insurance. This summer, I'm going to a private school conference with Alpha, and I'm planning to show private school principals why they need to have a Barry in their counselors' offices, so kids can take one home with them. MacKenzie Price: And think about the financial barrier that this is going to remove, as opposed to the cost of weekly therapy, right? Abby Mellott: We touched on this earlier, but what about ethical concerns around data privacy and bias when using AI platforms? MacKenzie Price: Obviously there are valid questions about data privacy. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on that. What I am an expert in is how to educate children really well. I understand there are concerns, but what we can show is transformative. One of the amazing things about our AI technology is that it's like doing a CAT scan of a child's brain. We know exactly what they know, what they don't know, and where the gaps are — and we can go in and fill those holes. Another thing that excites me is how AI lets us map not only a student's knowledge graph but also their interest graph, and then overlay the two. So that seven-year-old boy who hates to read but loves the Avengers and plays soccer with his best friends? Suddenly, he's reading a choose-your-own-adventure story about saving the world with his soccer buddies — at exactly the right Lexile reading level for him. Suddenly, he wants to read. You can extend that same approach to learning math through fashion design, or teaching financial literacy based on a student's personal goals. So yes, I get very excited about it. And no, I don't spend as much time worrying about the other parts. Abby Mellott: To wrap it up, what role do you see AI playing in education over the next five years? MacKenzie Price: There has never been a more exciting time to be a five-year-old, and there has never been a more exciting time to be a teacher. It's so important for people to understand that education is finally at the point where it can be truly transformed. It's one of the last major industries to experience such a profound change. I hope we see wide-scale adoption, where people really jump in and use these tools fully — not just continue with the old model and add a little smattering of AI here and there. Dr. Ju Long: To build on what Bjorn was saying, it's like that image where three people are standing on the beach and a tsunami is coming. We are definitely already facing the wave, and there's no way to avoid it. The only way forward is to go through it. But I think, in order not to get swept away by the wave, what anchors us is still the human side of learning. In our college, a lot of people, including my own students, ask me, 'Am I going to be replaced by AI?' That's a very legitimate question. What I tell them is: your human agency matters. You decide what you want AI to do for you and how you want to learn. It's the same for faculty — we ask, "Are we going to be replaced by AI?" But when we look at AI as our partner, we can see there's so much potential. We are still in the pilot's seat, even if AI acts as a co-pilot. BJORN Billhardt: What I'm seeing now, and what AI is enabling, is a real shift in the role education plays, not just for kids but also for adults who will need to be reskilled and adapt completely to new ways of working. I believe that's where the world is headed: education becoming integrated into daily life and work. It's a little scary, but it's also incredibly enabling. If we can figure out how to make that kind of education feel productive, not creepy, it will move education from being on the periphery of our society to being central. Alex Mathew: The last thing I'll add is that AI is helping create a more level playing field. It means you can be the best in the world at what you're doing. And it's really leveraging young people's natural curiosity. It allows them to discover what they really love doing at an earlier age, unlocking that potential sooner. Plus, there's now a much wider range of possibilities available to them.
