EMBER Platform
Build for federal. Own your foundation.
The speed of a platform approach.
The control of your own environment.
The flexibility to operate independently.
EMBER is the foundation. Rapid Build puts it in your cloud.
Your modular, customer-owned cloud platform
Core infrastructure, identity and access controls, security tooling, monitoring, and operational capabilities in your own cloud accounts. You own the foundation and control how it grows.
How Coalfire establishes it in your environment
A configuration-driven, automated pipeline that deploys the selected platform components into your target environment, backed by Coalfire FedRAMP specialists and cybersecurity engineers.
Your next application builds on the same foundation. Reuse the shared services that fit and extend the architecture, with application-specific onboarding and certification-scope review as needed.
Three starting points
A new way forward for federal launches.
Every federal launch starts with one of three paths. With EMBER, you own the platform and reuse its foundation to move compatible apps forward faster—for less.
Build bespoke You gain: Full tailoring of every service and integration. You give up: Time and engineering for every foundational decision, integration, and control. Best when: You need a highly customized architecture and have the team to build it. | Lease a managed platform You gain: A provider's environment and operating model, so less to build yourself. Some providers support customer-specific certifications and listings using inherited controls. You give up: Control of your own FedRAMP Marketplace listing, environment, and operating model. You still handle the application work within the provider’s certified boundary—and may pay an additional fee for each application you onboard. Best when: You want to consume a provider's offering end to end and are comfortable operating inside its boundary. | EMBER Build with EMBER You gain: Skip months of foundation design and integration. You also get a standardized, pre-engineered foundation in your own cloud environment, with infrastructure, security, telemetry, and evidence capabilities designed to work together. Your own certification and Marketplace listing, subject to the applicable process. You give up: Some tailoring of each service. Application work and certification still need their own scope. Best when: You want a faster start on a standardized foundation, with ownership of the platform and your certification strategy. It fits whether you are bringing one application to market or many, since additional compatible applications can be onboarded to your own platform through the significant change process. |
Why EMBER
Start with a foundation, not a blank slate.
| Less foundational engineering EMBER reduces repeated design and integration work, so your team can focus on the product and FedRAMP 20x certification preparation. It does not eliminate the engineering your application needs. | Control your platform and revenue model Build in your own cloud and retain ownership of the platform behind your federal offering, without tying federal growth to a platform revenue-sharing model. | Reuse what you build Extend the architecture and reuse supported shared services for additional applications. Each new application goes through onboarding and a certification-impact review, and the shared platform removes the foundation work. |
What the foundation brings together
Coalfire provisions and configures selected capabilities across four areas. The exact scope is set during design, based on your target cloud.
Cloud foundation and access
- Cloud landing zone
- Managed directory, identity, and single sign-on
- Multifactor authentication
- Remote access
Security controls
- Encryption, secrets, and certificate management
- Endpoint protection and endpoint allowlisting
- Vulnerability management
- Web application scanning
- Container scanning
Delivery automation
- Source control and pipelines
- Patch and configuration automation
Operations and resilience
- IT service management
- Backup and recovery
- Management-plane monitoring and application performance monitoring
- Operational communications
From first conversation to onboarding, in four steps.
01
Architecture conversation
Scope the first federal opportunity, offering, and ownership model.
02
Application fit
A Coalfire solution architect confirms whether the standard Kubernetes environment fits, or whether a management-only or custom approach is better.
03
Management plane / platform deployment
Deploy the standardized, customer-owned foundation in your cloud accounts.
04
Application onboarding (per application)
Compatibility review, onboarding, and certification-scope review, scoped separately.
You decide who runs the platform.
Operate it yourself
Your team runs the platform, its engineering standards, and its roadmap.
Add Coalfire Maintenance & Operations
Optional, separately scoped and priced ongoing operations and continuous improvement. Ownership stays with you.
Management foundation only
Deploy the management and security foundation without the application environment, if you supply or commission your own application infrastructure.
Your first application is the reason to build. The next one is the upside.
First compatible application
Launch on standardized security, identity, monitoring, and deployment patterns.
Next application
Compatibility assessment, application-specific controls, onboarding, and a review of dependencies and boundaries.
Broader portfolio
Reuse supported shared services where they fit.
Know the fit before you commit.
EMBER is designed for
- Compatible containerized applications running in private Kubernetes environments
- SaaS teams pursuing FedRAMP 20x Class C for their own defined offering
- Teams that want to own the platform and the certification strategy
Scoped and priced separately
- Containerization, migration, development, modernization, and testing
- Independent assessment, submissions, and the certification decision
- Required Coalfire FedRAMP advisory and optional Maintenance & Operations
- Custom application infrastructure, when the standard Kubernetes environment is not a fit
Bring your first federal opportunity.
In one architecture conversation, we review your target offering, application compatibility, ownership model, and certification path.