Azure Government
Updates for building solutions across Microsoft's Clouds for Government
Latest posts
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down with Steve Downs from the Azure Government Engineering team to discuss Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) on Azure Government. What is VDI? How is it different from traditional Remote Desktop? Why do customers use VDI and, most importantly, how does VDI help government agencies reduce their costs? These are just some of the questions that are answered in this video. Steve will also explain how Azure Government enables agencies to scale (both up and down) their VDI workloads, as well as better enable Disaster Recover scenarios. If y...
Strengthen cybersecurity with an enterprise risk mindset
Cybersecurity is one of the biggest issues facing federal Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Evolving security is recognized across the board as an important challenge that needs to be addressed swiftly and in a continuous fashion. Security is always top of mind for CIOs, and one of the major challenges of introducing new technology is ensuring that security considerations are addressed. Gartner includes a number of recommendations in their whitepaper Top Seven Priorities for U.S. Federal CIOs. Cloud-based systems offer advanced threat analytics that allow for broader threat detection, thereby enabling orga...
Web App Easy Auth Configuration using PowerShell
In a previous video with an associated blog post, we discussed the different forms of identity in Azure Government and how Web Apps written in .NET can be configured to use Azure Active Directory (AAD) identities in either Azure Government or Azure Commercial (Public). In that discussion and walk-through, the Azure portal was used to configure the applications. Azure Web Apps also offer a more generic mechanism for authentication and authorization. It is also know as "Easy Auth" because it is easy to enable and configure. It is available through the "Authentication/Authorization" pane in the Azure portal. Easy A...
Microsoft Tech Summit is going government – register today!
Announcing the Microsoft Government Tech Summit coming to Washington DC March 5-6, 2018! Build your cloud skills during this free technical learning event for IT professionals and developers. We’re hitting the road with our top engineers to bring you two days of in-depth sessions, networking opportunities, industry insights, and hands-on skill building with the experts behind Microsoft cloud solutions. This year we are showcasing Azure Government and Microsoft 365 for US Government with over 40 dedicated government sessions to help you lead your organization through digital transformation. As expectations of ...
Conquering the Upfront Cost Barrier to IoT
According to a recent report from the International Data Center (IDC), How government organizations look at IoT, the top three roadblocks to IoT deployment are upfront costs, security, and privacy.[1] Over 30 billion devices are estimated to be connected to the internet by 2020.[2] The Internet of Things (IoT) can offer government agencies new and innovative ways to connect to the citizens they serve. This is why more and more government agencies are adopting IoT initiatives as part of their cloud strategy. Of those agencies that have already adopted cloud, 82% of them plan to increase cloud spending this ye...
HDInsight Extension for VS Code now available in Azure Government
We are excited to announce that the HDInsight Extension tool for VS Code has been extended to the Azure Government environment. HDInsight developers now can easily access their Azure Government subscription through this extension with a few clicks. HDInsight Tools for VS Code supports Hive Interactive Query, Hive Batch as well as PySpark Interactive and Batch. It is a light-weight, cross platform and greatly improves developer experience on HDInsight. Download HDInsight Extension for VS Code In order to install the HDInsight Extension, open up your VS Code and navigate to View -> Extensions -> Install HD...
Migrate user workspaces to Azure Government with Citrix Xenapp/XenDesktop 7.16
In October, we announced that Citrix Cloud included the ability to provision non-persistent user workspaces into Azure Government and today I’m pleased to share that Citrix’s traditional on-premises XenApp and XenDesktop products also includes that capability – with the release of XenApp/XenDesktop 7.16. Provisioning user workspaces straight from your existing on-premises Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop environments drastically simplifies your migration to the cloud while also reducing the risk associated with any upgrade or migration. You can start migrating user workloads to Azure Government by upgrading...
Harnessing the intelligent cloud for Defense
The rapid evolution of technology and the exploitation of data, machine intelligence and on-demand computing power is changing the landscape of defense. This is leading to a massive shift in how the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to adopt cloud computing services to rapidly innovate, extend its mission capabilities and stay ahead of its adversaries. In a September 2017 memo directing the DoD to take steps to accelerate enterprise cloud adoption within the Department, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan cited the use of commercial capabilities in the areas of data infrastructure a...
Advancing your cloud journey
According to a survey of Federal CIOs from the International Data Corporation, [1]IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Cloud in Federal Civilian Agencies in the United States, 2017, 86.4% of respondents are operating beneath the highest stage of cloud maturity. These respondents represent technology decision makers across 104 federal civilian agencies. In the survey, IDC establishes a series of stages in cloud maturity, with “optimization” representing the last stage, where agencies are achieving the most significant value with their cloud investments, and “ad hoc’ representing the first stage. What’s most striking ab...