“Giving Back is in Our DNA”: How AvePoint is Driving Social Change in the Tech Industry

Posted on by Kevin Briggs

AvePoint (NASDAQ: AVPT) is the global leader in robust data management and governance with over 21,000 customers across the globe, helping them secure their collaboration environments across Microsoft, Google and Salesforce. Using AI, AvePoint enables organizations to modernize their digital workplace and improve data governance, enhancing productivity, collaboration and security. In addition to helping its customers thrive within their digital collaboration systems, AvePoint is dedicated to philanthropy, reflecting a core mission to drive positive change in the technology industry and their communities.

Internal and External Charitable Efforts

AvePoint’s philanthropy efforts reflect the company’s core values of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), with a focus on using technology to drive social impact. Recognizing the tech industry’s challenges with underrepresentation, especially for women and people of color, AvePoint supports groups like Girls Who Code to break stereotypes about women in technology. AvePoint also fosters change within the organization through employee resource groups like AvePoint Veterans, Black AvePoint Excellence, Women in Technology (WIT), Latinx and Queers and Allies (Q&A), all aimed at fostering inclusivity and providing a supportive environment.

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Community engagement is integral to AvePoint’s mission, with events designed to blend philanthropy and collaboration. For instance, Black AvePoint Excellence (BAE) hosts an annual gala for partners and customers, typically held around Juneteenth. Likewise, during Pride Month, AvePoint’s Queers and Allies group invited a guest speaker to discuss the significance of Pride Month and what the organization could do to be more inclusive and equitable both internally and externally. These events reflect AvePoint’s culture of integrating ongoing education and fostering empathy, so employees can better serve their communities, extending positive change outward.

Beyond internal efforts, AvePoint’s philanthropic events align with Public Sector initiatives by giving back to communities through local charities where events are held. These collaborations not only contribute to community needs but also highlight AvePoint’s commitment to giving back in meaningful, locally impactful ways.

Past contributions include:

At the 2023 National Association of State Technology Directors (NASTD) Conference, AvePoint hosted a cornhole game, raising $2,500 for the Boston Children’s Hospital.
In 2023, at the TribalNet Conference in San Diego, California, AvePoint had two surfboards for attendees to decorate that were donated to the Groundswell Community Project.
AvePoint partnered with Carahsoft at NASTD 2024 and held a mini-golf game, donating $5,000 to The Minneapolis Foundation.
Partnering with Carahsoft for the second time, AvePoint hosted another mini-golf challenge at the 2024 Municipal Information Systems Association of California (MISAC) Conference, raising $3,000 for Patriots and Paws.

AvePoint’s recent partnership with Carahsoft’s Doing Good Team has enhanced these initiatives, particularly by streamlining charity verification and maximizing contributions. By combining resources, AvePoint and Carahsoft can expand their philanthropic impact, support reputable charities and foster community support. AvePoint’s ongoing commitment to diversity, inclusivity and technological advancement drives these charitable efforts, aiming to make a lasting difference in the communities they serve.

A Culture of Support and Service

AvePoint’s philanthropic efforts are deeply influenced by CEO, Dr. Tianyi Jiang, who has prioritized giving back to the technology community throughout the company’s 23-year history. This commitment to social responsibility is exemplified by initiatives like a partnership with Cornell University to mentor the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs. This leadership-driven ethos resonates throughout the company, promoting charitable engagement at both organizational and individual levels, across the U.S. and globally.

Beyond organized company initiatives, AvePoint encourages employees to pursue their own charitable passions with a donation matching program to support causes that resonate personally with team members. Employees are also empowered to volunteer, with flexibility to balance work and service. AvePoint’s support for these independent initiatives illustrates how the company’s culture of giving is woven into its fabric, encouraging employees to contribute both professionally and personally.

AvePoint’s culture of giving is grounded in values that empower employees to engage in meaningful initiatives, both through company-supported efforts and personal causes. Leadership’s passion for community impact inspires employees at all levels to pursue organized and independent philanthropic efforts, always met with AvePoint’s encouragement and resources. As seen in examples across the organization, this culture of service is more than a formal policy—it is embedded in the company’s DNA, guiding AvePoint’s commitment to making a positive difference within and beyond the technology industry.

Explore the AvePoint culture of giving back on our Careers Blog, and learn more about how the company supports the Public Sector with our award winning technology here.

Securing the Digital Workplace: Microsoft 365 Identity Management for Public Sector Leaders

Posted on by Antoine Snow

Zero Trust is a critical focus for public sector organizations as they navigate today’s evolving digital workplace and cybersecurity landscape. But one issue is emerging as increasingly troublesome: insider threats.

The 2022 Cost of Inside Threats: Global Report found incidents involving insider threats surged 44% over the past two years. While some of these threats may be malicious insiders, seeking to misuse their authorized access for personal gain or harm, many are the result of cybercriminals exploiting vulnerabilities in identities to enter your environment. These criminals use tactics like compromised credentials – the leading cause of data breaches – as well as phishing scams and social engineering to impersonate identities and gain unauthorized access.

To effectively counter these increasingly sophisticated threats, organizations must strengthen identity management. When executed properly, identity management not only enhances the security of your digital workplace but enables a Zero Trust strategy.

Let’s discuss what identity management is, how to build a comprehensive strategy in Microsoft 365, and how it can fortify your Zero Trust deployment.

What is Identity Management?

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Identity management establishes and manages the digital identities of anyone entering your environment – from employees and contractors to guest users. Identities could refer to people, but they could also be services or devices entering your environment.

Identity management enables organizations to implement robust access controls, granting privileges based on roles – which is why identity management is an integral piece of Zero Trust. Without it, you will have no way to verify users and devices are who they say they are, let alone establish proper privileges and access, which are key Zero Trust principles.

When done effectively, identity management provides the right access to the right individuals at the right time for the right reason. This process not only improves your security posture, but can streamline user access, reduce administrative overhead, and help you better meet your compliance obligations.

Building Identity Management in Microsoft 365

When building your identity management strategy in Microsoft 365, remember these three basic elements: identify, authenticate, and authorize.

Here’s how to get started:

Identify: The backbone of identity management in Microsoft 365 is Azure Activity Directory (Azure AD). Azure AD provides a cloud identity for users, groups, and resources. It is where you build out your users’ identities and control access to internal and external resources – like your intranet or even Microsoft Teams. The solution will recognize users (based on Microsoft’s powerful machine learning and AI’s understanding of typical user and tenant behavior) and flag risks that fall outside of normal behavior, triggering the next steps of the process.
Authenticate: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is today’s gold standard for authenticating identities. There are a variety of ways to do this, from smart cards to one-time passwords, that add layers of protection to your security. Microsoft’s Authenticator App helps implement MFA across your applications in a convenient and easy way for users, allowing them to verify their and their devices’ identities from their phones.
Authorize: It’s critical to grant access privileges based on the conditions specific to your organization. Conditional Access policies take a two-phased approach: first, it collects information about the person (their device, IP address, etc.) and then enforces any policies you have in place. This could mean if it detects a new device, it may enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) or request the user sign in again. It could also prohibit access under certain conditions, like if a user is attempting access from a mobile device. These policies provide granular control over access while reducing the risk of authorized access.

By following this framework, you can easily begin using the powerful tools Microsoft offers to build your identity management strategy, ensuring only authorized individuals have access to critical systems.

Three Ways to Take a More Proactive Approach to Identity Management

Once you’ve taken the initial steps to start building your identity management approach, take it to the next level to enhance your security:

Right-size your policies: Strict, one-size-fits-all rules can hinder productivity; if security is in the way of getting the job done, users will find a way around it. Customizing your policies to specific users, workspaces, or even content creates a more tailored approach to access control, striking a balance between security and productivity.
Implement lifecycles: Identities should not permanently exist in your environment. People switch jobs or upgrade their devices. Establish a process to evaluate and recertificate identities – whether users (both external and internal) or devices – to ensure they still require access to your content and workspaces.
Monitor your environment: Even with the best-laid security plans, things can still fall through the cracks. That’s why it’s critical to monitor your environment – including users, devices, locations, and behavior – to identify any anomalies or suspicious activities that should be addressed.

These strategies can help you build a more proactive identity management approach that actively reduces risks and attack surfaces, allowing you to go beyond verifying identity to create a secure and efficient digital workplace.

Build a Secure Digital Workplace with Zero Trust

While identity management is an important aspect of building your secure digital workplace, ensuring only authorized individuals have access to your systems, it is not enough to protect your data or the workspaces where it lives in today’s ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.

Public sector organizations must embrace a comprehensive Zero Trust security framework to effectively build a secure digital workplace. To do so, you must combine identity management best practices with other robust security measures, like role-based access controls, workspace governance policies, lifecycle management processes, and risk assessments. Together, these strategies can enhance the protection of your digital environment and minimize your risk of data breach or unauthorized access.

Download the free AvePoint guide, “How to Achieve Zero Trust Standards Without Limiting Collaboration in Microsoft 365,” for more information about protecting your digital collaboration workspaces with a Zero Trust framework.

AvePoint Adds Governance, Management, Data Protection and Migration Support for Microsoft Power Platform

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Carahsoft partner AvePoint Public Sector recently announced its support for the governance, management, migration and data protection of Microsoft Power Platform environments. As more organizations adopt Power Platform to automate processes, build digital solutions, analyze data and create virtual agents, IT leaders need strategies that support their unique governance, security and compliance requirements.

AvePoint’s support for Power Platform helps organizations:

Provide scalable management and governance: Access management and risk assessments allow organizations to quickly drive impactful collaboration and sustainable Power Platform adoption. Best practices and productivity can be achieved through automated governance and policies, enforcing proper control of data access and functionality.
Protect critical workspaces, apps and flows: AvePoint’s automated backup for Power BI workspaces, Power Apps and flows makes it seamless to avoid accidental data deletion, user error or ransomware. This way, organizations can ensure they’re protected, compliant and prepared for business continuity when using Power Platform.
Seamlessly migrate data: Building on AvePoint’s award-winning migration capabilities, organizations can now migrate apps from an environment within the same tenant or between tenants – giving organizations more opportunities to successfully use Power Platform.

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Some organizations are already taking advantage of the AvePoint’s Power Platform support. “AvePoint’s support for Power Platform has helped us empower employees to safely build solutions that will enhance their work,” Mike Fettner, Principal Office 365 Engineering at Regeneron, said. “As an organization, this allows us to continue taking smart risks because we know robust governance solutions will put the right guardrails in place, and data protection will ensure none of our data or workflows are lost.”

Register today to join AvePoint and Microsoft for Power Platform Workshop: A Framework to Manage and Govern Power Platform at Scale, coming to a city near you later this Spring.