Azure Government
Updates for building solutions across Microsoft's Clouds for Government
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Change the Way Your Agency Thinks About the Cloud
Cloud migration should be at the top of every Federal CIO’s priority list. [1]Cloud technology offers agencies the tools they need to drive impact with innovation in a rapidly changing digital world. With the cloud, CIOs can bring about digital transformation to support agency missions, using technology as the foundation of new approaches to citizen services. Cloud resources free up agencies from the burden of legacy infrastructure, increasing efficiency and creating new opportunities. CIOs need to change the way government agencies think about the cloud, removing obstacles to cloud migration. Adopting new te...
Empower Federal Employees with Modern Technology
In Gartner’s Top Seven Priorities for U.S. Federal CIOs, they maintain that revitalizing the IT workforce should be looked at as an opportunity for CIOs to improve the quality of employees their organization has.[1] One way of doing this is by modernizing the workforce with new and innovative technology. CIOs can leverage updated technology as a way to retain current talent and allow them to refine, refresh, and grow their skill set, keeping them competitive with peers in other industries. Advanced technology will also attract new, innovative talent that allows agencies to push their mission forward. Across t...
How Government is Using IoT to Provide Better Services to Citizens
A recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that by 2020 the number of devices connected to the internet will exceed 30 billion.[1] This web of connected devices, or Internet of Things (IoT), gives government agencies a new and unique opportunity to leverage innovative technology to provide better services to citizens. While IoT is still an early stage technology, such devices have long been used before the concept was fully developed. For instance, the City of Los Angeles has 145,000 street lights and 4,500 intersections.[2] By connecting these devices with IoT technology, agencies c...
Azure Security and Compliance Blueprint – Web Applications for FedRAMP
Today we are pleased to announce the general availability of a new Azure Security and Compliance Blueprint - Web Applications for FedRAMP. This solution deploys and configures Azure resources in a simple reference architecture and implements a subset of controls from the FedRAMP High baseline, based on NIST SP 800-53. Deploying the solution requires less than 10 minutes of hands-on-keyboard time, including running a pre-deployment orchestration script that collects parameters to prepare your Azure subscription for the automated deployment. For a quick look at how this solution works, watch this five-minute vide...
Elevating the Value of the CIO
As the Microsoft Azure Government federal lead partnering with CIOs, I'm often asked: "What are the top priorities for modernizing government?" With new legislation empowering CIOs to take a greater leadership role in transforming the business of government, we're seeing new opportunities to innovate while reducing technology debt A recent report from Gartner Top Seven Priorities for U.S. Federal CIOs recommends they "assert their right to a seat at the executive table" as key strategists in moving government forward. This includes (1) convincing executive stakeholders of the business and mission value of info...
Azure Gov Meetup Replay: Intersection of Cybersecurity & Digital Transformation for Gov
Recently, a crowd of more than 120 people turned out for the Azure Gov DC user community Meetup on the Intersection of Cybersecurity & Digital Transformation at 1776 in Washington, DC. For those who were not able to join us for the event we are pleased to bring you the replay of the event. Segment 1: Kicks off with Azure Government updates then features Mark Russinovich, CTO, Microsoft Azure, who presents his vision on cloud computing, confidential computing and cybersecurity. Segment 2: A panel discussion on balancing cybersecuity and government modernization. The panel is moderated by Jason Miller,...
Join us at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference in Washington, DC
Are you attending NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, Nov. 1-2, at the Ronald Reagan International and Trade Building in Washington, DC? If so, we invite you to our session, AI, HPC Infrastructure & Visualizations on Microsoft Azure Government at on Nov. 1, 1:30 - 2:20 p.m. in Hemisphere B to learn about advancements of GPU capabilities in Azure Government. During this session, Microsoft Azure Government's Zach Kramer, engineer lead; and Kyle Deeds, program manager, will provide you with insight to how Azure Government supports high performance computing, visualization, deep learning and artificial intellig...
Utilizing the cloud for greater security everywhere
In my day-to-day work, I help government agencies implement initiatives to protect, detect and respond to breaches. You've likely heard statistics - on average globally, it takes 191 days to identify a data breach and that the median number of days an attacker stays dormant within a network before detection is over 200. To put that in context: on average, an attacker exists within a company's or agencies infrastructure, free to gather information or worse, for over six months before they're found. It's not that agencies aren't employing security best practices but the reality is all the protection in the world ca...
Azure Government DC Hackfest + Training Recap
We recently completed our fifth Azure Government HackFest + Training event (this being the second one in DC) and it drew an even bigger crowd than the first DC HackFest event back in June! This is following from our last successful Azure Gov HackFest in Sacramento. We were excited to see 100 people in attendance for this event! Special thanks to the speakers we brought in from outside the Azure Government Engineering team to deliver presentations: On day 2 the teams were engaged building several compelling solutions. Here is one of our teams diagramming their solution on the white board. Teams bu...