New York runs its agencies from Albany. Across town, rival chipmakers share the same cleanrooms.
In the Capital Region about one job in five is in government, and New York runs IT for its agencies through a single consolidated office. Up the road, chipmakers and toolmakers share cleanrooms at Albany NanoTech. Both groups need tight answers about who can reach which system, and whose data is whose.
- Identity Governance & AdministrationCybersecurity
- Privileged Access ManagementCybersecurity
- Customer Identity (CIAM)Cybersecurity
- AI Governance & SecurityAI & Machine Learning
- Machine & Workload IdentityCybersecurity
- Data Governance & AccessData & Analytics
- Zero Trust ArchitectureCybersecurity
In Albany we work with New York State agencies and public authorities, the vendors that build and run their systems, semiconductor research tenants and life sciences companies.
The work covers workforce and resident identity, privileged access, AI use governed under state policy, and data separation in shared research environments. We follow NYS ITS policies and the State Technology Law. Cohash serves Albany remotely from Frisco, Texas and travels in for workshops and launches.
There is no Cohash office in the Capital Region. We serve Albany organizations remotely from Frisco, Texas and fly in for discovery sessions, design workshops and production cutovers.
- rules
- State entity breach notice, State Technology Law §208Business breach notice, GBL §899-aaNYS Policy NYS-P24-001, acceptable use of AI technologiesNYS cyber incident reporting for state entities
What's specific about Albany
Each figure comes from a public source, linked on the card.
Government made up 107.3 thousand of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro's 480.0 thousand nonfarm jobs in September 2026, preliminary BLS figures show. Education and health services were next at 94.2 thousand.
source ↗ 02 3,500The NYS Office of Information Technology Services, set up in 2012, has more than 3,500 staff serving 130,000 employees in more than 50 agencies. Its Joint Security Operations Center covers 450,000 endpoints and 4,600 applications, ITS says.
source ↗ 03 50,000NY CREATES plans to run an ASML TWINSCAN EXE:5200B High NA EUV tool in NanoFab Reflection, a building with 50,000 square feet of cleanroom at its Albany NanoTech Complex. It lists IBM, Micron, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron among the partners.
source ↗ 04Brookings named the Capital Region one of seven AI "Focused Movers" in 2025, the Center for Economic Growth reports. The same CEG page lists GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 among the region's advanced electronics anchors.
source ↗Who we work with in Albany, and the rules they work under
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State agencies and public authorities
Agency staff, contractors and seasonal workers sign in to shared statewide platforms, and the people they serve sign in through resident portals. Role changes between agencies are where stale access builds up. We tie entitlements to the HR position record, run reviews agency owners can finish, and separate employee accounts from resident accounts.
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IT vendors and integrators serving the state
Contractors that build and support state systems often hold standing admin rights across development, test and production. Agencies increasingly want each of those rights justified and logged. We move vendor admins to named accounts with just-in-time elevation and recorded sessions, so an agency can show who changed a production system and when.
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Semiconductor research and fabrication
Shared R&D sites host competing companies on the same tools, so process recipes, metrology data and design files must stay with their owner. We build tenant-scoped identities and data access, keep tool and equipment service accounts under rotation, and give equipment vendors remote access that expires after the maintenance window.
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Life sciences and drug manufacturing
Labs and plants run validated systems where any access change needs a documented reason. We set up role-based access with approval records your quality team can file, and audit logs that hold up when an inspector asks who edited a batch record.
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State entity breach notice, State Technology Law §208 ↗
State agencies and public authorities notify affected residents without unreasonable delay and send notice to the Attorney General, the Department of State and ITS. The entity consults ITS on scope and restoration, and ITS reports back within 90 days. Notifying more than 5,000 residents brings in the consumer reporting agencies.
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Business breach notice, GBL §899-aa ↗
Vendors and other private companies holding New Yorkers' private information have 30 days from discovery to notify residents, plus the Attorney General, Department of State and State Police. A vendor that only maintains data for an agency must tell that agency right away.
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NYS Policy NYS-P24-001, acceptable use of AI technologies ↗
Issued by ITS in 2024 as the first statewide policy on government AI use. State employees must consult it, along with NYS-G25-002 on generative AI in the workplace, before adopting tools that use AI.
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NYS cyber incident reporting for state entities ↗
Under the State Information Security Policy, state entities report cyber incidents with significant or severe impact, or that involve digital forensics, to the Cyber Command Center. Policy NYS-P03-002 also has them notify non-residents whose private information was exposed.
Most requested in Albany
The services clients in Albany ask us for most.
01We are a vendor to a state agency. Whose breach law applies to us?
Usually the business law, GBL §899-aa, for data you own, and a duty to tell the agency right away for data you hold for it. The agency then has its own obligations under State Technology Law §208, including notice to ITS. Your contract may add tighter timelines, so read it with counsel.
02Does NYS-P24-001 apply to contractors building AI features for an agency?
The policy is written for state entities, and agencies tend to pass its requirements to vendors through contracts. In practice we give each AI component its own service identity, restrict it to the data the use case approved and log its access, which gives the agency the record it needs for its own review.
03How do you keep tenants apart in a shared semiconductor R&D facility?
We start with identity. Each tenant gets its own groups and data stores, tool service accounts are scoped per tenant, and cross-tenant access needs an approval that expires. Network and physical controls stay with the facility operator, and we line our design up with theirs.
04Can you work with NY.gov ID or other state identity platforms?
We integrate applications with whichever identity provider the agency uses and follow ITS standards for that platform. ITS lists NY.gov ID among its own services, so changes on the shared platform side go through the agency's ITS contacts.
More cities in New York
75b80c81 - 01BLS, Albany-Schenectady-Troy economy at a glancebls.gov ↗
- 02NYS ITS, about usits.ny.gov ↗
- 03NY CREATES, High NA EUV Lithography Centerny-creates.org ↗
- 04Center for Economic Growth, industry sectorsceg.org ↗
- 05NY State Technology Law §208nysenate.gov ↗
- 06NY General Business Law §899-aanysenate.gov ↗
- 07NYS ITS, artificial intelligence policiesits.ny.gov ↗
- 08NYS ITS, breach notification and incident reportingits.ny.gov ↗
Tell us what you're running. We'll tell you what we'd do first.
A 30-minute working session with a senior engineer. No slides.
- The platform and the version you're on
- Where you need to get to, and by when
- What's custom: rules, plugins, integrations
- Any audit finding or deadline driving it