LabArchives Earns FedRAMP 'In Process' Designation, Paving the Way for Secure Government ELN Use
LabArchives for Government, developed by Dotmatics and sponsored by the NIH's National Cancer Institute, has achieved the FedRAMP "In-Process" designation, marking a critical step toward full FedRAMP authorization that will enable its electronic lab notebook (ELN) and related products to meet stringent U.S. federal data security standards and operate as trusted cloud solutions for secure scientific research and collaboration within government agencies.
LabArchives customers will benefit from industry-leading data security practices including higher-level encryption, vulnerability scanning, audits, and more.
Boston, MA, April 4, 2024 – Dotmatics, a leader in R&D scientific software connecting science, data, and decision-making, announced that its LabArchives for Government solution has achieved the “In-Process” designation granted by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®). LabArchives’ FedRAMP application is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). LabArchives enables organizations to securely organize, search, and share data in a powerful electronic lab notebook (ELN) that supports scientific research and breakthroughs. This milestone is critical on the path to attaining FedRAMP authorization. LabArchives for Government is now listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace and will operate as a trusted partner to federal agencies upon authorization.
FedRAMP is the U.S. government program that provides a safe, standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies. The rigorous authorization process requires an in-depth examination of LabArchives data security and data governance capabilities, development processes, security procedures, and policies, and its cloud services technology.
Matt Dunie, President of LabArchives, stated: “Scientists and their teams are racing to digitize information and make analytics-at-scale a possibility, however it’s critical that their organizations can uphold the integrity and security of the data generated throughout its lifecycle, while enabling research collaboration. The U.S. federal government has incredibly high security standards for cloud technologies, which is why the FedRAMP Marketplace is the sole source for all federal agencies seeking authorized solutions. FedRAMP authorization for LabArchives will mean that our ELN, Inventory and Scheduler products meet all FedRAMP requirements and demonstrates Dotmatics’ commitment to the highest standards of security and reliability.”
The Path to FedRAMP
LabArchives decided in 2019 to build on its existing technological solutions and integrated commercially-reasonable information security as a key product feature set. The company began a multi-year journey to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data stored within the system. LabArchives elevated the security posture of all parts of the organization—from processes to policies, certifications to coding standards—resulting in SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications. FedRAMP is the next, and most difficult, stage of this journey. The company plans to achieve StateRAMP authorization as part of an independent process at a later date.
To obtain “In Process” status with FedRAMP, LabArchives collaborated with two institutes in the NIH, including the official sponsoring agency, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The NIH is the single largest funding source for scientific research, fueling $38 billion of research grants.
In 2022, LabArchives secured a license for 1,000 users on a pilot basis at NCI. The following year, LabArchives became the first ELN licensed for agency-wide use at the NIH with a new license for 4,000 users available to all NIH scientists.
Introducing LabArchives for Government
In recent years, government and state agencies such as the White House Office of Science and Technology, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and National Archives and Records Administration have all issued recommendations, requirements, and regulations mandating that certain data must be kept in various levels of secure systems and that certain data be converted from print to electronic format. LabArchives products support those guidelines, and add significant end-user workflow tools to make the products more useful than an unstructured, native storage solution.
LabArchives for Government offers the same secure, cloud-hosted LabArchives products customized to satisfy additional NIST 800-53 requirements, approved by federal government agencies, and placed within an authorized environment. The solution includes three applications:
- LabArchives ELN is a digital notebook and workspace for better data management, connectivity, and collaboration.
- LabArchives Inventory streamlines the organization, usage, tracking, and ordering of inventory items.
- LabArchives Scheduler is an easy-to-use calendar and scheduling software for the management and scheduling of laboratory equipment and resources.
LabArchives for Government will operate separately from all other LabArchives cloud sites. However, many of the added controls necessary to achieve FedRAMP authorization will also benefit commercial LabArchives customers. These include government-grade encryption at all levels of the system, further improvement of LabArchives’ “security by design” approach to product development, more comprehensive documentation of policies and procedures, additional vulnerability scanning and penetration testing, and more extensive reviews by a certified third-party assessor.
About LabArchives
LabArchives is a suite of SaaS applications dedicated to better science used by more than 750,000 scientists to manage and protect research data, inventories and laboratory resources. LabArchives products help scientists document their research data, prove and protect discovery, and collaborate securely. Used in more than 500 of the world's leading research academic, commercial and government research organizations, and thousands of lab courses, LabArchives is a leading research data management SaaS application platform.
About Dotmatics
Dotmatics is a leader in R&D scientific software connecting science, data, and decision-making. Its enterprise R&D platform and scientists’ favorite applications drive efficiency and accelerate innovation. More than 2 million scientists and 10,000 customers trust Dotmatics to help them create a healthier, cleaner, safer world. Dotmatics is a global team of more than 800 people dedicated to supporting its customers in over 180 countries. The company’s principal office is in Boston, with 14 offices and R&D teams located around the world.
Dotmatics is backed by Insight Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software scaleup companies. Learn more about Dotmatics, its platform, and applications including GraphPad Prism, Geneious, SnapGene, Protein Metrics, and LabArchives at https://www.dotmatics.com/.
Media Contacts
Maggie Quale
Director of Public Relations
Dotmatics
media@dotmatics.com
(831) 325-7943
Jeremy Miller
Director of Marketing
LabArchives
jmiller@labarchives.com
(760) 260-9549
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