Azure Government
Updates for building solutions across Microsoft's Clouds for Government
Latest posts
A year in review for Azure Government
Looking back over the past year and seeing the progress we’ve made gives us a real sense of momentum as we continue to double-down on our investments in Azure Government in 2018. As the engineering lead for Azure Government, my team looks at everything from where we build datacenters, to what hardware and networking we put in those datacenters, what services we bring in, and how we achieve compliance. Here are some highlights of what we've delivered over the past year to support the amazing work you're doing: We’ve got a lot more coming in 2018 and we hope to see you at some of our upcoming e...
Register now: Azure fundamentals training at AFCEA WEST
Azure Fundamentals Training at AFCEA WEST We’re looking forward to seeing those of you attending AFCEA WEST and invite technical and business leaders to join us for an exclusive commercial cloud training event on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., in room 27A at the San Diego Convention Center. This is a great opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in Azure and gain an understanding of the key building blocks for building, deploying, and managing cloud solutions on Microsoft Azure. The session will start with a discussion of IaaS (virtual machines, networking, and storage) and other cloud services ...
Securing IaaS workloads for Department of Defense
By Jason Henderson, Cloud Solutions Architect Kyle Hoyer, Technical Solutions Professional Derek Strausbaugh, Principal Program Manager, Azure Global A rapidly increasing number of DoD customers deploying IaaS workloads to Azure have been asking for guidance setting up secure virtual networks and configuring the security tools and services stipulated by DoD standards and practice. DISA published the Secure Cloud Computing Architecture (SCCA) in 2017. SCCA describes the functional objectives for securing the Defense Information System Network’s (DISN) and Commercial Cloud Provider connection points a...
Microsoft Azure Government leader honored with FCW 2018 Federal 100 Award
We’d like to congratulate the recently-announced 2018 Federal 100 Award winners, including Karina Homme, senior director, Azure Government, who was recognized for her many contributions to the federal government IT community. The Federal 100 Awards are presented annually by Federal Computer Week to recognize government and industry leaders who play pivotal roles in federal government IT. These individuals have gone above and beyond their daily responsibilities and have made a difference in the way technology has transformed government. Karina was recognized for her work building one of the largest government ...
How can agencies address technical debt?
The federal government has an estimated $7 billion in technical debt causing increased risk to government as this debt accumulates. Much of this is due to agencies that have deferred maintenance or reduced funding for initiatives due to budgetary constraints. This tactic, left unmanaged, can lead to significant costs later especially if it results in a system breach or failure. With the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act signed into law Dec 12, we expect to see agencies increasingly prioritize the importance of modernizing legacy systems and eliminating the technology debt. But the question is how? G...
Register now: Cyber Agility with the Cloud webinar
Cloud enables an ever-accelerating pace of innovation and change. At the same time, cloud architecture challenges fundamental assumptions of on-premises cybersecurity practices; existing security and compliance frameworks simply can't keep up. The next evolution of cybersecurity is a transition away from "best practice" models of security to a focus on our capability to disrupt adversaries. Please register and join me for a live Digital Government Institute webinar, Cyber Agility with the Cloud, on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. US/Eastern to hear about how measuring the effectiveness of security capabilities can ...
Balancing government innovation with modernization (MGT)
A 2016 Government Accountability Office (GAO) Study found that federal government invests over $80 billion on IT annually—but 75 percent of that money is being spent to maintain old and legacy systems. Even with the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 and the proposed IT Modernization Fund, Federal CIOs need to find the right balance of investment to enable innovation while modernizing legacy systems. The importance of this is underscored by a recent report by Gartner, Top Seven Priorities for U.S. Federal CIOs, which lists modernizing legacy systems as a top priority for government CIOs. According to t...
Azure standard support for U.S. Azure Government customers
In response to customer requests for support that includes (1) a fixed monthly cost, (2) fast response times for critical cases, and (3) a plan that covers the entire organization, we're pleased to announce important updates for Azure Standard support. With these changes, Azure now offers the most cost effective and predictable support offering. For all Azure Government customers, Standard Support now includes the following: *Note: The Standard support plan price remains unchanged for Azure Government customers who purchased or plan to purchase Azure Standard Support under an Enterprise Agreement....
Federal agencies continue to advance capabilities with Azure Government
We’re continuing to see agencies advance their capabilities using Azure Government. Two agencies have recently issued new Authority to Operate (ATO) designations for Azure Government: the U.S. Air Force with a DoD Impact Level 4 ATO for its Common Computing Environment (CCE) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with a FedRAMP High ATO. DoD Impact Level 4 ATO from the U.S. Air Force The mission of today’s Air Force is to fly, fight and win in air, space, and cyberspace. The Air Force is building a modern foundation for this in the cloud, enabled by this new ATO and a shared application platform and...