Tractors that report to the cloud, ERP code written down the road, and research data on a growing campus.
Fargo's equipment makers and farm software startups collect machine and field data from thousands of growers. The city also has a Microsoft campus that grew out of a local accounting software company. And a sizable share of the metro's jobs sit in hospitals and at NDSU.
- Industrial IoTInternet of Things
- Machine & Workload IdentityCybersecurity
- Customer Identity (CIAM)Cybersecurity
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 ServicesEnterprise Platforms
- Data EngineeringData & Analytics
- Identity Governance & AdministrationCybersecurity
- Data Governance & AccessData & Analytics
In Fargo, Cohash works with ag tech and equipment companies, software firms, health systems and university research groups.
The work is device and machine identity for connected equipment, Dynamics 365 and data platform builds, customer identity for grower apps, and access governance for clinical and research data. We run Fargo projects remotely from our office in Frisco, Texas, and travel up for workshops and launches.
There is no Cohash office in Fargo. We work with North Dakota and Moorhead teams remotely from Frisco, Texas, and fly up for discovery, design workshops, field testing and go-live weekends.
- rules
- North Dakota breach notification, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 51-30North Dakota HB 1127 , financial corporation data securityMinnesota Consumer Data Privacy ActHIPAA Security Rule
What's specific about Fargo
Each figure comes from a public source, linked on the card.
The Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corp. lists John Deere Electronic Solutions, Bushel and Agco among the region's ag tech employers, and Microsoft under hardware and software.
source ↗ 02Microsoft's Fargo campus traces back to its 2001 purchase of Great Plains Software, a Fargo company that made business and financial software for small and medium-sized companies.
source ↗ 03 $199.8 millionNDSU reported $199.8 million in research expenditures for FY24 in the NSF HERD survey released 23 December 2025, ranking 98th of 422 public institutions. Research backed by the USDA rose 25.3%.
source ↗ 04 $10 millionGrand Farm's innovation campus for autonomous agriculture covers 140 acres west of Casselton, Agweek reported in August 2023. Its capital campaign started after a $10 million state matching grant in 2022.
source ↗ 05 4.2%Education and health services held 30.8 thousand of the Fargo ND-MN metro's 155.9 thousand nonfarm jobs in September 2026 (preliminary), BLS data show, while manufacturing was up 4.2% over the year.
source ↗Who we work with in Fargo, and the rules they work under
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Ag equipment and farm data platforms
Connected planters, sprayers and grain systems send telemetry to cloud services, and grower apps pull it back out for agronomists, co-ops and lenders. Each machine and integration holds a certificate or token. We give devices their own identities, put rotation on the credentials, and build consent screens so a grower controls who sees field data.
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Software and business applications
Fargo has a deep bench of people who know Dynamics and accounting software, and local firms build on it. We help product teams with Dynamics 365 integrations, tenant-level admin controls and data models, and we split shared admin accounts into scoped roles before customers ask about them.
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Health systems and clinics
Large regional systems treat patients from North Dakota and Minnesota in the same hospitals. Staff hold clinical, billing and research access at once, and travelers and contractors cycle through. We tie access to the credentialing record, review it on a schedule, and log who touches patient data.
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University research
Grant-funded labs work with external collaborators who need short-term accounts on shared storage and compute. Those accounts tend to outlive the project. We set expiry by grant period, separate research identities from student and staff ones, and keep sponsor data in labeled, access-controlled stores.
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North Dakota breach notification, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 51-30 ↗
Residents must be told in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. There's no risk-of-harm exception. If a breach affects more than 250 people, the Attorney General must also be notified without unreasonable delay, by mail or email.
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North Dakota HB 1127 (2025), financial corporation data security ↗
Effective 1 August 2025 for financial corporations regulated by the Department of Financial Institutions, with banks and credit unions excluded. They need a written security program, and an event involving 500 or more consumers goes to the Department within 45 days of discovery.
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Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 325M) ↗
North Dakota has no comprehensive privacy law, but the Fargo metro includes Moorhead. Minnesota's law took effect 31 July 2025 for entities processing data of 100,000 or more Minnesota consumers a year, or 25,000 with over 25% of revenue from data sales.
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HIPAA Security Rule ↗
Applies to hospitals, clinics and health plans and their business associates. It expects access controls, audit logs and workforce access review for electronic protected health information.
Most requested in Fargo
The services clients in Fargo ask us for most.
01Does North Dakota have a consumer privacy law like Minnesota's?
No comprehensive one as of October 2026. North Dakota's breach statute still applies, and HB 1127 covers some nonbank financial firms. If you process data on enough Minnesota residents, including Moorhead customers, Minnesota's act can apply. Confirm scope with counsel.
02How do you handle identity for connected farm equipment?
Each machine or gateway gets its own certificate, issued at manufacture or first activation, with a way to revoke it when equipment is sold or scrapped. Dealer and service technician access goes through named accounts, not a shared service login.
03We build on Dynamics 365. Can you help with integrations and security?
Yes. We design the integrations, set up service principals instead of shared user accounts, and limit admin roles in each customer tenant. We also model the data so reporting doesn't need direct database access.
04Can grower apps let farmers share data with an agronomist without sharing a password?
Yes. We set up delegated access with scoped consent, so the grower picks which fields, seasons or machines to share and can revoke it later. The audit trail shows who viewed what.
05Our lab hosts outside collaborators. How do we stop old accounts piling up?
Tie each guest account to a sponsor and an end date from the grant record. When the date passes, access drops unless the sponsor renews it, and quarterly reviews catch the rest.
f5549fe6 - 01GFMEDC, Major Employersgfmedc.com ↗
- 02MPR News (AP), Microsoft Fargo campus anniversary (June 2011)mprnews.org ↗
- 03NDSU, sixth consecutive record research expenditures (January 2026)ndsu.edu ↗
- 04Agweek, Grand Farm fundraising milestone (August 2023)agweek.com ↗
- 05BLS, Fargo ND-MN economy at a glancebls.gov ↗
- 06N.D. Cent. Code chapter 51-30ndlegis.gov ↗
- 07Davis Wright Tremaine, North Dakota breach summarydwt.com ↗
- 08Hunton, North Dakota HB 1127hunton.com ↗
- 09Minnesota Statutes §325M.12revisor.mn.gov ↗
- 10HHS, HIPAA Security Rulehhs.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