Azure Government
Updates for building solutions across Microsoft's Clouds for Government
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Unlocking New Possibilities: Microsoft Azure Hyperscale AI Computing with H200 GPUs Accelerates Secure AI Innovation in Azure for U.S. Government Secret and Top Secret
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries and redefine the boundaries of innovation, Microsoft is proud to announce a leap forward in secure, high-performance computing in our Secret and Top Secret clouds: the integration of NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs into Azure’s AI infrastructure. This advancement helps unlock unprecedented generative AI capabilities, large language models (LLMs), and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, while meeting the stringent security and compliance demands of government and regulated industries. Built for the Future of AI The NVIDIA H200 GPU is engineered...
NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) Data Now Available on Microsoft’s Planetary Computer
NASA’s vast archive of Earth observation data has long been a cornerstone for scientific discovery, environmental monitoring, and global sustainability efforts. Now, Microsoft has made it even easier for researchers, developers, and decision-makers to access and utilize this critical resource. Through a collaboration with NASA, the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset is now available on Microsoft Azure by using Microsoft’s Planetary Computer platform. Whether you’re a researcher looking to push the boundaries of climate science, an entrepreneur exploring new commercial applications, or a scientist ...
Azure OpenAI Service now authorized for all U.S. Government data classification levels
In the coming years, artificial intelligence will continue to be foundational to technical innovations for national security missions. Already, U.S. defense and intelligence organizations are using AI to enhance productivity, support decision making, and improve mission outcomes. Microsoft Azure is a backbone for this type of AI-driven work, supporting U.S. government missions with high resiliency, sophisticated capabilities, flexibility, and advanced security, designed to meet the stringent compliance requirements of the nation’s most sensitive data. Today, we are excited to share that Azure OpenAI Service ha...
Embracing Zero Trust: Never Trust, Always Verify
Microsoft's 2024 Digital Defense Report found that between July 2023 and July 2024, Microsoft customers faced an astounding 600 million attacks daily from both cybercriminals and nation-state actors. In this high-risk and rapidly evolving environment, individuals and organizations must not only strengthen digital defenses at every level but also foster a deep and enduring commitment to cybersecurity. Zero Trust offers a powerful and proactive architecture that redefines how organizations safeguard their data and systems. In 2021, the U.S. federal gov...
Successfully leveraging stakeholder feedback with Comment Analytics
Agencies in the U.S. federal government publish an average of 3,700 proposed rules yearly, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. With each proposed rule, agencies generally provide an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to submit comments before the rules are finalized. In some instances, thousands of comments are submitted, with no consistent government-wide process for intaking, analyzing and reporting the findings. A similar dynamic exists in the private sector, where organizations regularly solicit and analyze feedback and comments from customers to improve products ...
Unlocking new possibilities: Microsoft AI, database, and identity products receive authorization for Top Secret workloads
Microsoft’s leading AI capabilities are being used across industries to enhance data analysis, bolster security, and support key business priorities. Our U.S. Government customers and authorized partners consistently share that they are ready and eager to apply these same tools to serve their critical missions, and Microsoft is committed to delivering the breadth of our capabilities to them securely, responsibly and compliantly. These capabilities open new possibilities for government agencies to improve public services, streamline internal workflows, and support critical missions like disaster response and publi...
Azure OpenAI, including GPT-4o, Approved as a Service within the FedRAMP High Authorization for Azure Government
Editor’s note (September 3, 2024): this post has been updated to note that Azure OpenAI has been approved as a service within the DOD IL4 and IL5 Provisional Authorization for Azure Government by Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). As part of our ongoing effort to deliver the latest AI innovations to our government customers, our team is proud to announce several significant updates: Agencies requiring FedRAMP High Authorization are now able to access these leading AI capabilities within their Azure Government tenant, enabling secure and responsible access to the latest AI technologie...
Anticipating the future of physical systems design
Rising complexity, IP intensity and need for security of physical systems products requires a transformation in how to develop, manufacture and operate these systems. To meet time-to-market demands, software developers and hardware producers alike need optimized cloud + AI solutions that can provide higher levels of collaboration, higher protection and access to scalable computing resources, and the latest AI technologies. Additionally, government and industry require increasing validation of security and access controls to many physical systems that are key to commercial and national security. In March, Micro...
Microsoft AI Powering DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge
One of the most promising applications of advanced AI is its ability to help combat cyberattacks from enhanced threat intelligence to AI-powered remediation. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) that will bring together the foremost experts in AI and cybersecurity to develop innovative solutions to safeguard critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Microsoft is proud to support this challenge by providing the participating teams with access to the latest AI models in Microsoft Azure. Innovation with AI and cybersecurity is even more important for ...
Beyond the hype: Part 1, How trustworthy AI empowers US Government agencies
Large language models’ (LLM) ability to transform mission workflows for US Government agencies is revolutionary and adoption is now starting to accelerate. As agencies begin to leverage LLMs, they unlock capabilities that promise to streamline processes and drive innovation forward. It also means that there’s more to be done in the near term to support the deployment of LLM applications. With this great potential comes great responsibility. From a national security perspective, LLMs are essential for readiness and resilience. Adversaries have already invested heavily in this technology, employing AI to power d...
Supporting Federal Agencies in Their Implementation of the Executive Order on AI – Part 1
The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Memorandum on Artificial Intelligence (M-24-10) (the “Memo”), part of the President’s comprehensive strategy on AI, outlines a structured approach for federal agencies to leverage artificial intelligence responsibly. The Memo provides direction that establishes a governance framework, fosters responsible AI innovation, and implements important risk management protocols. Microsoft values the Memo’s guidance that enables agencies to implement AI safely and effectively in fulfilling their missions, is committed to supporting these initiatives, and offers agencies the ca...
Azure Modeling and Simulation Workbench now in public preview
Mujtaba Hamid, GM Product Management, Strategic Missions & Technologies, Microsoft Prashant Varshney, Head of Product, Azure MSWB, Strategic Missions & Technologies, Microsoft Designing a silicon chip, an aircraft engine, an autonomous system, running sub-surface simulation for oil drilling, and other complex engineering systems are processes that typically include thousands of functions to verify, complex system interactions to optimize and multiphysics simulations to validate manufacturability. The need for close collaboration of developers from different disciplines, software and IP partners and ...
Comprehensive Document Translation Solution
Background and Use Cases Many of our customers have a requirement to translate documents from a variety of languages into a common language to ensure their mission success. These documents can be in a variety of formats, with unique page layouts and styles, and they may contain images with embedded text essential for a complete understanding by the reader. In many scenarios, there are large numbers of documents that must be translated quickly and securely to ensure mission success. Below are some common use cases for government organizations requiring document translation: The C...
Azure OpenAI service is now available in Azure Government
In October, I shared Microsoft’s commitment to bring the latest advances in AI to support critical government needs and further drive innovation for mission critical workloads. I am thrilled to announce Azure OpenAI Service is now available in Azure Government joining a comprehensive set of existing AI Platform of services that include Azure AI Services (formerly Azure Cognitive Services), Azure Machine Learning and Azure AI Search to advance AI capabilities in government. Azure OpenAI Service in Azure Government enables agencies with stringent security and compliance requirements to utilize this industry-lead...
How Microsoft is helping the Space Force become a Digital Service
Space is increasingly becoming a contested environment as nation-states compete to control this latest frontier. The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) is taking significant steps to modernize systems and capabilities in order to ensure service members have the best tools to protect and defend our interests in space. SSC recently renewed its partnership with Microsoft to develop the Integrated, Immersive, Intelligent Environment (I3E), a production follow-on to the Immersive Digital Facility (IDF) prototype successfully developed in 2023. I3E establishes an immersive environment to train, prepare, ...
Decoding AI: Part 8, Data governance and generative AI
Welcome to Part 8 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series! In our previous blog, we re-introduced a technique that can help us achieve better boundary conditions and quality outputs: Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with GAI. In this module, we wrap up with a culmination of all our learnings till date, and how they can benefit the US government and the public. We will also share some of the best practices and tips for using generative AI, and how to avoid or mitigate some of the potential risks or challenges. — Kent Cunningham, Miri Rodriguez, Siddhartha Chaturvedi Why generative AI ma...
Decoding AI: Part 7, Retrieval Augmented Generation with GAI
Welcome to Part 7 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series! In our previous blog, we discussed how to create boundary conditions in generative AI, the topic on everybody’s mind, as we explore the boundaries (pardon the pun) of generative AI - the constraints or rules that guide the outputs of these technologies, and why they are essential for the US government. In this module, we re-introduce a technique that can help us achieve better boundary conditions and quality outputs: Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with GAI. — Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Miri Rodriguez The topical relevance of RAG ...
Decoding AI: Part 6, Creating boundary conditions in generative AI
Welcome to Part 6 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series! In our previous blog, we discussed the importance of trust in AI, especially for large language models and generative AI. In this module, we dive deeper into how to create boundary conditions in generative AI, the topic on everybody’s mind, as we explore the boundaries (pardon the pun) of Generative AI - the constraints or rules that guide the outputs of these technologies, and why they are essential for the US government. — Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Miri Rodriguez What are boundary conditions and why do they matter? Boundary condi...
Accelerating AUKUS: Securing Multilateral and Multiagency Collaboration
Public - Private partnerships are successful. After years of talking about the need for public-private partnerships, the war in Ukraine has stress-tested the system. Since the war’s beginning in February 2022, Microsoft security teams, working closely with Ukrainian government officials, US government cybersecurity staff and US private enterprises have identified and remediated a variety of cyber threat activities against Ukrainian networks.1 The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Centre (MSTIC) discovered wiper malware2 in more than a dozen Ukrainian networks. Microsoft subsequently alerted the Ukrainian g...
Decoding AI: Part 5, Navigating trust in the age of large language models and generative AI
Greetings and welcome to Part 5 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series! Previously, we went through the expansive capabilities of multimodal AI, spanning sectors from agriculture to urban living. In this module, we pivot to a matter of paramount importance: Trust in AI, with a focus on large language models and generative AI. — Keith Bauer, T’Neil Walea, Miri Rodriguez, Siddhartha Chaturvedi The central role of trust in AI Trust is not a single feeling, but a complex and dynamic phenomenon. It shapes how we perceive and interact with the world around us, including the artificial AI tec...
Delivering Cutting-Edge AI Solutions to US Government
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform nearly every sector of the economy and society. For U.S. government agencies, the latest advances in AI offer a unique opportunity to optimize their operations, deliver better user experiences and enhance national security. Microsoft is innovating in AI to deliver technology for the public sector. As we embark on this new way to work, we are committed to delivering transformational AI innovations responsibly to drive government missions, aligned to the goals of the White House’s recent executive order for safe, secure and trustworthy AI. We began enab...
Decoding AI: Part 4, The age of multimodal AI
Welcome to Part 4 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series! In our previous dialogue, we unraveled the complexities of semantic search and generative AI and how they are transforming public governance. In this module, let’s shift gears and focus on the dawn of a new AI era: multimodal sensing. This compelling advancement merges multiple sensory data—think vision, sound, text—into an insightful, unified whole data set. — Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Miri Rodriguez Making sense of different senses In our day-to-day lives, we seldom rely on just one sense to make decisions or understand our envir...
Decoding AI: Part 3, Making data speak human
Welcome back to Part 3 of our Decoding AI: A Government Perspective series. In our last installment, we explored the nuanced landscape of anomaly detection and how it intersects with generative AI in shaping the future of public governance. As promised, today's dialogue will pivot toward semantic search and its role in converting complex data into easily interpretable, actionable insights. – Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Miri Rodriguez Semantic search: A cognitive leap beyond keywords For a long time, traditional search engines have been revered for their impressive ability to sift through and parse millions of d...
Decoding AI: Part 2, From anomalies to action
Welcome to Part 2 of our Decoding AI: A Government Perspective learning series. In the previous module, we embarked on a fascinating journey into the world of generative AI. As we progress, our aim is to delve deeper into the ways AI can shape the future of federal processes and governance. Today, we will shed light on the indispensable role of learning patterns and anomalies, and their significance in the world of AI. – Miri Rodriguez, Siddhartha Chaturvedi How does AI think? Artificial intelligence finds patterns in a way similar to human cognition. In essence, AI learns from data by guessing the chances and...
Decoding AI: Part 1, Introduction to generative AI
Welcome to Part 1 of our Decoding AI: A government perspective learning series, where over the course of eight modules, you will learn about the emerging field of generative AI and what this technology can mean for government. This series will not only help you understand how generative AI can help increase your organization’s productivity, but also how it can be used to supercharge innovation in incredible new ways. Over the course of this series, we’ll be dissecting complex themes like AI education, public discourse, sensory perception & robotics, AI governance and more. And we’ll be interacting with you th...
Microsoft Azure OpenAI Approved as a Service within the FedRAMP High Authorization for Azure Commercial
Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service is now included within the US Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Authorization for Azure Commercial. This Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) within the existing FedRAMP High Azure Commercial environment was approved by the FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB). This milestone follows our previously announced solution enabling Azure Government customers to access Azure OpenAI Service in the commercial environment. With this latest update, agencies requiring FedRAMP High can directly access Azure OpenAI from Azure commercial. Sign up here...
Azure Data Transfer authorized for Azure Government Secret and generally available for critical mission data types
Today, we are announcing the Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 6 (IL6) provisional authorization (PA) for Microsoft’s cross domain solution service, Azure Data Transfer. The IL6 PA provides authorization file transfer of software artifacts, associated files, and other restricted use data types, as well as Microsoft 365 documents and images. Microsoft is the first cloud service provider to obtain this authorization while meeting National Cross Domain Strategy & Management Office’s Raise the Bar compliance requirements. Azure Data Transfer’s capability to move software artifacts and restricted use ...
Azure Virtual Desktop is now generally available in Azure Government Secret
Today we’re announcing that Azure Virtual Desktop received Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 6 (IL6) accreditation and is now available to all customers in Azure Government Secret. Azure Virtual Desktop enables government agencies to host secure, compliant, mission-critical workloads in Azure. Whether a government agency requires a mission-focused desktop or an enterprise-wide desktop environment, Azure Virtual Desktop provides a scalable solution that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft offerings. About Azure Virtual Desktop Azure Virtual Desktop provides secure, remote d...
How to use Azure-SSIS integration runtime to run SSIS packages in Azure and Azure Government
Integration runtime for Azure-SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) makes it possible to simply run SSIS packages in Azure and Azure Government. The feature provides similar functionality and behavior to when you schedule SSIS packages by using SQL Server Agent in your on-prem environment. Azure Data Factory provides the engine to execute packages instead of SQL Server Integration Services. With this feature, you can run SSIS packages that are stored in SSISDB in a SQL Managed Instance, or a file system like Azure Files. The two additional components that are required for this feature along with Azure SQL Man...
Azure Government Secret expands DoD IL6 services, receives highest level information categorization
In our previous blog post, we shared that Azure Government Secret achieved Provisional Authorization (PA) at Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 6 (IL6) in addition to Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 Authorization to Operate (ATO) with facilities accredited at ICD 705. Today, we’re announcing that Azure Government Secret DoD IL6 PA was expanded to include more than 60 cloud services in authorization scope and highest level information categorization as High Confidentiality, High Integrity, and Customer-determined Availability (H-H-x). Azure Government Secret is the first and only classified cloud ...
Defending Federal Systems with the Microsoft Sentinel Threat Analysis & Response Solution
This blog is jointly authored by Lili Davoudian, Senior Product Manager, Cloud & AI Security; Ashwin Patil, Senior Security Researcher, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center; and Ron Marsiano, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Sentinel. With the growing need for federal agencies to evaluate coverage of respective threat detection capabilities along with the need for adaptive solutions to evaluate and recommend analytics coverage within the MITRE ATT&CK® framework – Microsoft now offers a singular place to manage your security coverage with the MITRE ATT&CK® blade. Threat hunting programs also req...
Announcing the Microsoft Sentinel: NIST SP 800-53 Solution
Today, we’re announcing the Microsoft Sentinel: NIST SP 800-53 Solution which enables compliance teams, architects, SecOps analysts, and consultants to understand their cloud security posture related to Special Publication (SP) 800-53 guidance issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This workbook is designed to augment staffing through automation, visibility, assessment, monitoring, and remediation. Content features includes an intuitive user interface, policy-based assessments, control cards for guiding alignment with control requirements, alerting rules to monitor configuration d...
Jumpstart threat intelligence programs with the Microsoft Sentinel Threat Intelligence Workbook
We’re releasing the next evolution of the Microsoft Sentinel Threat Intelligence Workbook. This solution provides enhanced capabilities in indicator ingestion and indicator search, empowering organizations to centralize and correlate threat data across their workloads and operationalize these insights for investigation and response. As a result, this workbook serves as a starting point for building threat intelligence programs. For example, Indicator Search provides a free-text search of indicators (IP address, file, hash, email address, username) to determine: Learn more by watching the d...
Securing Defense Industrial Base workloads with the Microsoft Sentinel: CMMC 2.0 Solution
Since its first release in 2020, the Microsoft Sentinel Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification workbook has remained one of the most popular content packages for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) customers in Microsoft Sentinel. Today, we’re announcing the next evolution of this content in the Microsoft Sentinel: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 Solution. This empowers governance and compliance teams to design, build, monitor, and respond to CMMC 2.0 requirements across Microsoft, third party, hybrid, on-premises, and multi-cloud workloads. This content features a redesigned user interface...
What’s new: Microsoft Sentinel Zero Trust (TIC 3.0) Solution update
This blog is co-authored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Cloud & AI Security. With demand continuing to grow for federal agencies to build Zero Trust security principles seamlessly into their existing architectures, we’re announcing the Microsoft Sentinel Zero Trust (Trusted Internet Connections 3.0) Solution, a powerful tool to help agencies assess, monitor, and enhance security posture relative to zero trust practices. The next-evolution of the Microsoft Sentinel: Zero Trust (TIC 3.0) Workbook is the result of considerable positive feedback and valuable s...
Join us: Art of the possible: AI in government – March 30, 2022
We invite you this month to RSVP and join the Azure Government user community as we explore the “Art of the possible: AI in government” Wednesday, March 30 from 6 – 7 p.m. ET during a virtual meetup where we’ll discuss strategies, best practices and the latest tech driving exciting AI for good projects in government.
Azure export controls white paper updates
The Azure export controls white paper offers a brief overview of US, UK, EU, and Japan export control laws and regulations as they may apply to customers using Microsoft Azure cloud services. Also provided is some general guidance concerning the considerations that Azure and Azure Government customers should bear in mind when assessing their
What’s new: Azure Security Benchmark Workbook update
Today we’re announcing the next iteration of the Azure Security Benchmark (ASB) Workbook, which provides a single pane of glass for gathering and managing data to address ASB control requirements.
Microsoft Sentinel: Maturity Model for Event Log Management Solution now in public preview
See how agencies ease the task of aligning with federal cybersecurity directives with the Microsoft Sentinel: Maturity Model for Event Log Management Solution now available in public preview in Azure and Azure Government.
Solution accelerator for knowledge mining available for Azure Government
US government agencies can jumpstart their development projects to help meet mission demands with Azure Cognitive Search using our Knowledge Mining Solution Accelerator for Azure Government. Knowledge mining is an emerging category in artificial intelligence (AI) using a combination of AI services to drive content understanding over vast amounts of unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data allowing organizations to deeply understand their information, explore it, uncover insights, and find relationships and patterns at scale With every government organization having volumes of data, the Knowledge M...
Protecting federal information systems and critical infrastructure with the Microsoft Sentinel: IT/OT Threat Monitoring Solution
Also contributing to this blog are TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Senior Program Manager, and Katie Thomas, Program Manager, of Microsoft Cloud & AI Security. Security teams traditionally have not had tooling nor the expertise to provide them with visibility to monitor Internet of Things (IoT) / Operational Technology (OT) networks for vulnerabilities. As a result, IoT/OT security risks have traditionally been overlooked. This poses a great risk to organizations, as we see adversaries moving laterally from IT to OT with ease. In this video, we discuss the Microsoft Sentinel: IT/OT Threat Monitoring...
Building and monitoring Zero Trust (TIC 3.0) workloads for federal information systems with Microsoft Sentinel
See how to build and monitor Zero Trust (TIC 3.0) workloads for Federal Information Systems with the Microsoft Sentinel solution.
Azure Red Hat OpenShift now in preview in Azure Government
Today we’re announcing the public preview release of Azure Red Hat OpenShift in Azure Government. With this release, we will be bringing the world class Azure infrastructure with leading enterprise Kubernetes platform as a jointly operated and supported service for Azure Government customers.
Join us Oct. 27, 2021: Key strategies + tech for agencies to improve the nation’s cybersecurity
We invite you to RSVP and join us Wednesday, Oct. 27, from 6 – 7 p.m. ET, to hear speakers from government and industry discuss strategies and demo technologies that will help agencies improve their cybersecurity during a virtual Azure Government user community meetup.
Defending federal information systems with Azure Sentinel threat intelligence workbook
In this blog with video, Lili Davoudian and TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, discuss and demonstrate how Azure Sentinel threat intelligence workbook can help you start building threat intelligence programs by providing the capability to ingest and correlate threat data in cloud workloads.
Accredited for Azure Government Secret: Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack Edge, Azure Data Box
Today we’re announcing the Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 6 (IL6) accreditation for Azure Government Secret of several mission-critical device services for Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack Edge, and Azure Data Box.
Join us: AI in government
Join us Sept. 29 to hear speakers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center discuss some of the innovative AI projects they’re driving; and also from Microsoft on AI strategies, best practices, and the latest technologies that will enable the executive order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence at the Azure Government meetup.
Announcing private preview of authorized DoD Cloud Infrastructure as Code for Azure
To help Department of Defense (DoD) customers keep pace with mission demands, we’re announcing the private preview of DoD Cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for Azure – a set of preauthorized baselines that build standard environments in Azure Government to accelerate DoD adoption of cloud services.
New and updated regulatory compliance policy initiatives for NIST, FedRAMP, DoD in Azure, Azure Government
Azure Global recently released a new regulatory compliance policy initiative for NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5. This policy initiative includes more than 250 policies aligned to 800-53 Rev. 5 controls and helps customers establish guardrails to manage their compliance with specific NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 controls.
US Cybersecurity Executive Order: Zero Trust architecture for critical infrastructure
The US Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity requires US Federal Government organizations modernize cybersecurity and adopt a Zero Trust architecture. This is especially urgent for the 16 critical infrastructure sectors identified by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Organizations in the critical infrastructure sectors are responsible for systems considered so vital to the US their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on the security, economy, and public health of the nation. In these critical scenarios where seconds matter, Microsoft is un...
STIG solution templates now available in Azure Government Secret for Windows, Linux, and more
Today we’re announcing that our Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) solution templates are now also available in Azure Government Secret, enabling customers to build, host, and transform their applications faster across Impact Level 6 on secure and compliant infrastructure.
Azure Form Recognizer now processes IDs in Azure Government
Form Recognizer can analyze and extract information from government-issued identification documents (IDs) using its prebuilt IDs model to help reduce the time, complexities and errors that come with manually extracting data from various ID types and formats.
Accelerating authorization: DoD mission owners can now coordinate with Microsoft on eMASS
The Department of Defense (DoD) has approved Microsoft access to the Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS). This allows DoD mission owners to coordinate with Microsoft on access to the Azure security authorization packages, including control inheritance and control implementation details.
Video | Better together for US government: Azure Security Center + Azure Sentinel
In this video, Lili Davoudian and TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, discuss and demonstrate how when coupled, Azure Security Center and Azure Sentinel create an integrated end-to-end detection, investigation, and response platform for protecting cloud workloads.
Join us: What’s next? Emerging tech impacting US government
We invite you to RSVP and join the Azure Government User Community Wednesday, May 26 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST for a meetup on “What’s next? Emerging tech impacting US government” via Teams Live.
SQL Server 2019 on RHEL8 container now available on Iron Bank-DoD’s Centralized Artifacts Repository
SQL Server container images can now be used in highly-controlled environments, such as federal government, DoD, and Defense Industrial Base organizations, where the prerequisite to leverage any container image is that it must be hardened and accredited. To get started, you can download the container image from Iron Bank.
Meeting CMMC Level 3 on Azure
The Azure team just released a new CMMC Level 3 initiative for Azure Policy and a corresponding blueprint sample. These preview releases are available in Azure and Azure Government. In this blog post we break down the releases and how customers can use these tools to accelerate CMMC compliance in Azure.
Zero Trust architecture in Azure for government
The Azure Sentinel: Zero Trust (TIC 3.0) Workbook provides an overlay of Microsoft offerings to Zero Trust models, measurable over time via visualizations. Implementers, SecOps analysts, assessors, security and compliance decision makers, and MSSPs can leverage this capability to build, design, and monitor cloud security architectures.
Video: Microsoft Azure and Kubernetes—Managed Kubernetes at hyperscale for government
Brendan Burns, Microsoft CVP of Azure Compute and Co-Founder of Kubernetes, presents at the United States Air Force Software Officer, Nicolas Chaillan’s, Ask Me Anything (AMA) series on DevSecOps for DoD.
April 28: Top cloud cyber defense tactics for government
Today’s threat landscape continues to grow in complexity, sophistication, and frequency. As advanced attacks emerge, it is critical for government agencies to keep pace with actionable tips and the latest technology to protect your enterprise. We invite you to join us to learn new cloud cyber defense preparation tactics for government.
Announcing Azure STIG solution templates to accelerate compliance for DoD
Today we’re announcing the availability of Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) solution templates for both Windows and Linux on the Azure Marketplace (commercial) and Azure Government Marketplace.
Join us: From code to ATO—How to accelerate deployments in government
Learn how key DevOps practices such Infrastructure as Code (IaC), continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) and automated testing, allow you and your team to develop and release changes much faster, with higher confidence.
Azure Government expands compliance coverage with 142 services now FedRAMP High
Microsoft now has 142 services covered by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) for Azure Government. We continue to maintain FedRAMP High P-ATOs issued by FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB) for both Azure and Azure Government while bringing you more services at FedRAMP High than any other cloud provider. Azure Government provides the highest level of security, protection, and compliance services, delivering on our ongoing investments in commercial parity and our commitment to providing the most secure and compliant cloud across a...
New Azure Security Benchmark Foundation helps organizations embrace zero trust
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. To help organizations stay secure in a zero trust environment, we’re announcing the release of a new sample blueprint, Azure Security Benchmark Foundation, which provides a set of baseline infrastructure patterns to assist in building a secure and compliant Azure environment. Available in Azure and Azure Government, the Az...
Securing your agency’s remote workforce for today and beyond
With the flip of a switch, COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation for many agencies to empower an expanded remote workforce to deliver on their mission. As we approach a year of that switch, along with the hope of returning to “normal,” securing the remote workforce remains a top concern. With that in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a virtual Azure Government Meetup, Securing your agency’s remote workforce for today and beyond, on Wednesday, Feb. 24 from 6 p.m. ET – 7 p.m. ET hosted on Teams Live. During this event, which is free and open to the public, our speakers will share their experti...
120 Azure Government services now authorized for DoD IL5 workloads
We continue to drive expansion of our support for Department of Defense Security Requirements Guide (DoD SRG) Impact Level 5 (IL5) across all Azure Government regions. Our latest addition of 23 new services brings a total of 120 services authorized for IL5 workloads in Azure Government – more than any other cloud provider. These services include a broad range of IaaS and PaaS capabilities to enable mission owners to do more, faster. Mission owners can choose from multiple regions across the country and benefit from decreased latency, expanded geo-redundancy, and a range of options for backup, recovery, and cos...
Announcing compliance hub for Azure
To help customers meet their own compliance obligations across regulated industries and markets worldwide, Microsoft Azure maintains the largest compliance portfolio in the industry both in terms of breadth (total number of offerings), as well as depth (number of customer-facing services in assessment scope). A new Azure compliance hub page provides easy access to this information. Azure is a multi-tenant hyperscale cloud platform that is available or announced to customers in 60+ regions worldwide. To find out which Azure services are available in which regions, explore the Azure global infrastructure product...
Join us Jan. 27: Mastering cloud fundamentals for government in 2021
The accelerated adoption of cloud last year due to COVID-19 was phenomenal; advancing IT modernization for many organizations while also bringing a wealth of lessons learned. While much progress was made, many government agencies find there can still be challenges to getting started with cloud. With that in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join us to kick off the New Year learning how agencies can master cloud fundamentals for 2021 during an Azure Government meetup on Wednesday, Jan. 27 from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. ET hosted on Teams Live. During this event, which is free and open to the public, our speakers will sh...
Quickly deploy DoD STIG-compliant images and visualize compliance using Azure
This blog is authored by members of Microsoft’s Government Cybersecurity, Azure Global Critical Infrastructure team: Michele Myauo, Principal Engineering Manager; Adam Dimopoulos, Senior Program Manager; and Shawn Gibbs, Senior Program Manager. At Microsoft, our security and compliance story is one of our greatest differentiators. Microsoft recognizes the criticality of security compliance accreditations for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and Department of Defense (DoD) customers. Maintaining Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) compliance is critical and o...
Join the meetup: Achieving speed to capability in government – Dec. 2, 2020
Today’s mission speed continues to outpace government’s ability to deliver modern capabilities to end users. To keep pace with mission demands, agencies are reimagining their IT efforts including leveraging powerful technologies such as continuous software deployment, container management, automated machine learning, and serverless PaaS. To hear about the latest trends, tools, and tech empowering government, we invite you to RSVP and join us for an Azure Government Meetup, Achieving speed to capability in government, on Wednesday, Dec. 2 from 6:30 p.m. ET – 8 p.m. ET hosted on Teams Live. During this event,...
Resources to accelerate your CMMC journey
We’re actively building out our program by developing resources for both partners and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies to leverage in their Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) journey. In a recent blog, Richard Wakeman, senior director of Aerospace & Defense for Microsoft Azure Global, shares current resources to help you get started and accelerate your CMMC journey. While these tools cannot guarantee a positive CMMC adjudication, they may assist candidate organizations by improving their CMMC posture going into a formal CMMC review in accordance with CMMC Accreditation Body (AB) stand...
Join us Oct. 28: Balancing security + gov cloud innovation
The proliferation of data combined with the speed of advancing technology bring complex challenges to government’s ability to protect itself from evolving cyberthreats while striving to accelerate cloud innovation. In support of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a virtual Azure Government Meetup, “Balancing security + gov cloud innovation,” via Teams Live Event. During this free and open event, we'll discuss: Featured speakers We hope to “see” you at our virtual meetup. Be sure to check out the agenda and RSVP. And, please help us...
Windows Virtual Desktop now generally available in Azure Government with FedRAMP High
As government agencies respond to the imperative of remote work, we’ve seen an increasing need for solutions that enable teams to work remotely while keeping relevant data within a securely managed environment. Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) in Azure commercial has quickly become a market-leading solution for enabling secure remote work. Government customers have several options for hosting virtual desktops in Azure, including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop service and VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, and you can read more on these below. Today we’re announcing general availability of Windows Virtual D...
Enhancing Zero Trust in Azure and Azure Government with Zscaler
This guest post was contributed by Zscaler’s Jose Padin, Director of Pre-sales Engineering for US Public Sector; and Anup Barde, Sales Engineer; and Microsoft’s Adam Dimopoulos, Senior Program Manager for Government Cybersecurity, Azure Global Critical Infrastructure As government users are working remotely now more than ever, the apps they rely on are moving to the cloud to meet the demands of today's workloads. Legacy security perimeters that agencies once relied on are disappearing because of this user and workload decentralization. Classic castle-and-moat perimeters no longer exist, and organizations must ...
What’s new in Azure Government
Hear about the wide range of new Azure services and capabilities to help government organizations meet their critical needs in this video, What’s New in Azure Government, featuring Zach Kramer and Steve Michelotti of Azure Global Government Engineering for Microsoft Ignite 2020. In this video, Zach and Steve discuss the unique ways Azure Government empowers government missions across a broad range of data classifications and tactical scenarios from cloud-to-edge. Topics covered include: Check out the video, and to keep up with the latest in Azure and Azure Government: ...
97 Azure Government services now authorized for DoD IL5 workloads
We continue to drive expansion of support for Department of Defense Security Requirements Guide (DoD SRG) Impact Level 5 (IL5) to all Azure Government regions. We’ve added 18 new services for a total of 97 services authorized for IL5 workloads in Azure Government – more than any other cloud provider. These services include a broad range of IaaS and PaaS capabilities to enable mission owners to move further, faster. Mission owners can choose from multiple regions across the country and benefit from decreased latency, expanded geo-redundancy, and a range of options for backup, recovery, and cost optimization. ...
Join us online Sept. 30: How government can put AI into action
Today’s AI solutions perform increasingly complex tasks that can enhance government’s mission; from predictive maintenance to language translation to improving farming and expediting disaster response. While the magnitude of impact AI can have on agencies is significant, there are many roadblocks to adoption and understanding optimal scenarios and how to best leverage data to fuel these solutions. To learn more about the impact of AI and analytics on government, we invite you to RSVP and join us Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m. ET for a virtual Azure Government meetup, How government can put AI into action, ho...
Microsoft publishes secure isolation guidance for Azure and Azure Government
Azure is a hyperscale public multi-tenant cloud services platform that provides customers with access to a feature-rich environment incorporating the latest cloud innovations. While a multi-tenant cloud platform implies that multiple customer applications and data are stored on the same physical hardware, Azure uses logical isolation to segregate each customer's applications and data. This approach provides the scale and economic benefits of multi-tenant cloud services while rigorously helping prevent customers from accessing one another's data or applications. To provide customers with more detailed informati...
Got CMMC questions? Join an ‘Ask Microsoft Anything’ session on Aug. 25th
In preparing for the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) from the Department of Defense (DoD), many customers and partners have asked for more information on how to prepare for audits, and about Azure accreditation and our CMMC acceleration program. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, you can get answers to your questions around how we can help you achieve CMMC compliance with your Microsoft Azure subscriptions during an "Ask Microsoft Anything" (AMA) session hosted on the Microsoft Public Sector Tech Community. Be sure to save the date! To join, simply, visit the Government AMA space on Tuesday, August ...
Strategies to stand up a modern gov software factory + cloud PMO
Today’s government organizations face ever-increasing and evolving mission demands, requiring greater speed and agility to modernize IT. Some agencies have discovered a path to success by establishing software factories and cloud PMOs to accelerate development and delivery of better mission apps. To learn more about this new approach, we invite you to RSVP and join us Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 6:30 p.m. EDT for our virtual Azure Government meetup, Strategies to stand up a modern gov software factory + cloud PMO, to be hosted on Teams Live. During this meetup, which is free and open to the public, you’ll hear fr...
Azure Blueprint for NIST SP 800-171 R2 is now available in Azure Government and commercial clouds
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. Our recently released Azure Blueprint for NIST SP 800-171 R2 is now available in Azure Government and commercial clouds. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publishes a catalog of security requirements, Special Publication (SP) 800-171, for federal information systems. Our new NIST SP 800-171 R2 bluep...
Extract data from print and handwritten documents using Azure Form Recognizer
Now available in Azure Government, Form Recognizer is an AI-powered document extraction service that understands your forms, enabling you to extract text, tables, and key value pairs from your documents, whether print or handwritten. With just a few samples, Form Recognizer tailors its understanding to your documents, both on-premises and in the cloud. Turn forms into usable data at a fraction of the time and cost, so you can focus more time acting on the information rather than compiling it. For example, you can extract data from documents and forms such as tax documents, court forms, W2s and more. Top use...
Commercial best practices for DevSecOps in Defense
The Department of Defense has taken several measures to integrate a DevSecOps strategy across its entire organization. For example, the DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative is a joint effort on behalf of the Chief Information Officer and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment to integrate tools and services that support DevSecOps. As DoD moves forward on its DevSecOps journey, there are myriad lessons learned and best practices from the commercial sector to leverage. In a six-part article series with Government Executive Media Group (including Nextgov and Defense One), Micro...
Meetup replay: The rise of DevSecOps in gov software initiatives
“DevSecOps might be the most important thing that’s happened to security in the past 40 years,” said Ron Ross, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fellow, during a virtual Microsoft Azure Government meetup on May 27 to an audience of nearly 200 attendees. Ross along with CDR Thomas Sampson of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office, and Zach Kramer of Microsoft Azure Government Engineering shared insights on various challenges, best practices, strategies and benefits for agencies to adopt DevSecOps in government. To hear this engaging discussion, watch the panel replay. Some dynamic d...
With 14 new services at FedRAMP High, Azure Government continues expanding compliance coverage
Microsoft now has 116 services covered by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) for Azure Government. We continue to bring you more services at FedRAMP High than any other cloud provider, delivering on our ongoing investments in commercial parity and our commitment to providing the most secure and compliant cloud across a broad range of mission-critical capabilities. To streamline review and approval for our customers, Microsoft recently consolidated the Dynamics 365 for Government FedRAMP package into the Azure Government package. For...
Join us online June 24: The future of IoT and edge computing in gov
By 2025 roughly a quarter of all data generated globally will be created in real time, according to IDC. IoT and edge computing play an essential role in making sense of that data right at the source. As government agencies work to expand and become more responsive to real-time insights gathered through sensors and devices, this can enable better decision making to help meet their mission demands. To gain insights on the latest IoT and edge computing solutions transforming government, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a virtual Microsoft Azure Government DC meetup, The future of IoT and edge computing in ...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: System & Information Integrity (10 of 10)
This is the last in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. In previous blogs in the series we’ve explored access control, audit & accountability maturity, asset & configuration management, identification & authentication, incident response, maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management and system & communications protection. In this last blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for system & information integ...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: System & Communications Protection (9 of 10)
This is the ninth in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. The final blog in the series will delve into system & information integrity. In this ninth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for system & communications protection. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October 2020, and that as of the date of this writing, CMMC developments and guidance are in progress. Additionally, as of the date of this writing, the CMMC Accreditation Body has not certi...
79 Azure Government services now authorized for DoD IL5 workloads
Just over a year ago, we announced the expansion of support for Department of Defense Security Requirements Guide (DoD SRG) Impact Level 5 (IL5) to all Azure Government regions – today we have 79 services authorized for IL5 workloads in Azure Government, enabling mission owners with more services at IL5 than any other cloud provider. These services include a broad range of IaaS and PaaS capabilities to enable mission owners to move further, faster. Mission owners can choose from multiple regions across the country and benefit from decreased latency, expanded geo-redundancy, and a range of options for backup, r...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Security Assessment & Situational Awareness (8 of 10)
This is the eighth in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this eighth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for security assessment & situational awareness. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October 2020, and that as of the date of this writing, CMMC developments and guidance are in progress. Additionally, as of the date of...
Integrated compliance in Azure with Xacta 360
This guest post contributed by Vicky Frescas and Tirtza Bernstein of Telos Corporation covers how to use Xacta® 360 with Azure and Azure Government. Learn more by attending the upcoming Accelerating ATO on Azure webinar on May 28 at 2PM EST. Telos Corporation recently announced the Xacta® 360 integration with Microsoft Azure Government to accelerate IT risk management and compliance in the cloud. We invite you to attend a webinar on May 28 at 2PM EST with Azure CISO for High Security Clouds, Rich Scher, and Telos Corporation’s Vice President of Strategy and Cloud, Steve Horvath. The webinar will cover the new ...
Meetup replay: Gov IT modernization in the era of COVID-19
Our April Microsoft Azure Government meetup featured innovative demos and influential speakers in the federal space from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), CGI Federal, C3.ai, and Microsoft discussing strategies, challenges and tools for driving government IT modernization along the impacts COVID-19 brings to these efforts. Microsoft’s Nicholas DiCola kicked off the meetup with a demo of Azure Sentinel, then CGI Federal’s John Blandin teamed up with Microsoft’s Reynaldo Martinez and Anthony de Lagarde to share a digital modernization customer story in the federal landscape. The meetup culminated in an engaging...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Recovery & Risk Management (7 of 10)
This is the seventh in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this seventh blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for recovery & risk management. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October 2020, and that as of the date of this writing, CMMC developments and guidance are in progress. Add...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Maintenance & Media Protection (6 of 10)
This is the sixth in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this sixth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for maintenance & media protection. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October 2020, and that as of the date of this writing, CMMC developments a...
Join us online May 27: The rise of DevSecOps in gov software initiatives
Government is rethinking how it approaches software development and use of tooling in its technology programs by using more flexible methods to streamline the process and to improve cybersecurity from the start. Double clicking on a previous DevSecOps meetup, this month’s Azure Government DC Meetup takes us deeper into advances in tooling, thinking around software factories and DevSecOps frameworks, and current DevSecOps implementations. Please RSVP and join us for our virtual Microsoft Azure Government DC meetup, The rise of DevSecOps in gov software initiatives, Wednesday, May 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. ET by jo...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Incident Response Maturity (5 of 10)
This is the fifth in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this fifth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for incident response maturity. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October 2020, and that as of the date of this ...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Identification & Authentication Maturity (4 of 10)
This is the fourth in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into incident response, maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this fourth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for identification & authentication maturity. Please note that the information cutoff date for this post is October...
Azure HD Insight Enterprise Security Package now in Azure Government
Now available in Azure Government, the Azure HDInsight Enterprise Security Package (ESP) provides Active Directory-based authentication, multi-user support, and role-based access control for HDInsight clusters. Azure HDInsight offers several methods to address enterprise security needs, and most of these solutions aren't activated by default. This flexibility allows you to choose the security features that are most important to you. The Enterprise Security Package is designed for organizations where IT teams manage clusters, and multiple application teams share clusters. Selecting the Enterprise Security Pack...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Asset & Configuration Management (3 of 10)
This is the third in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into identification & authentication, incident response, maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this third blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for asset and configuration management. Please note that the information cutoff date...
New article and resources on DevSecOps for government
As the DoD modernizes how it approaches software and systems development in its technology programs, DevSecOps (Development, Security, and Operations) is gaining traction. These initiatives are bringing forward more flexible methods to streamline the development process and improve cybersecurity. To read more and gain insights on DevSecOps in DoD, check out the AFCEA Signal article DevSecOps Puts Security at the Heart of Program Development featuring interviews with Zach Kramer, Azure Government Engineering lead, and Derek Strausbaugh, chief digital officer of our National Security Team. You may also be int...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Audit & Accountability Management (2 of 10)
This is the second in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into asset & configuration management, identification & authentication, incident response, maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this second blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for audit & accountability managemen...
CMMC with Microsoft Azure: Access Control (1 of 10)
This is the first in a ten-part blog series where we’ll demonstrate principles of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) aligned with Microsoft Azure. Subsequent blogs in the series will delve into audit & accountability maturity, asset & configuration management, identification & authentication, incident response, maintenance & media protection, recovery & risk management, security assessment & risk management, system & communications protection and system & information integrity. In this first blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for a...
Meetup replay: Gov cloud demopalooza
About 80 Microsoft Azure Government user community members joined us last month for our first-ever virtual meetup, Gov cloud demopalooza, featuring TechTrend Inc., Mobius Logic, Leidos and Microsoft. In case you missed it, we invite you to watch the replay on our Azure Government meetup channel to see the innovative demos and great insights on tools and services for government. A big thank you to all our speakers and community members. Below you’ll also find brief descriptions of the featured demos. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to our next virtual meetup, Gov IT modernization in the era of COVID-19, on ...
New networking features in Azure Government
We recently announced Azure Virtual WAN along with other networking services you won’t want to miss, and now you can utilize Express Route and Point-to-Site VPN gateway with Azure Virtual WAN. In addition, you can now use IPv6 support within Azure Virtual Network to address IPv4 depletion in your own networks and expand your mobile and IoT capabilities. Learn more about these features below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure Virtual WAN with ExpressRoute and Point-to-Site VPN As covered in our earlier b...
Premium Files and Blob Storage now available in Azure Government
New capabilities in Azure Government include Azure Premium Files to help you achieve the next level of performance and Azure Blob Storage for scalable, cost-effective cloud storage for all your unstructured data. In addition, we recently announced the availability of SQL Database Managed Instance, Azure Dedicated Host, and Azure Storage Reservations in Azure Government. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure Premium Files Azure Premium Files is a new performance tier that unlocks the next level of performance for fully managed file services in the cloud. Premium tier is optimiz...
Join us online April 29: Gov IT modernization in the era of COVID-19
It was recently announced that the Technology Modernization Fund could get an additional $3 billion for agencies to upgrade IT tied to the COVID-19 response. Now, more than ever, there’s a great sense of urgency and demand for government to modernize and adopt cloud technologies to ensure it can best serve citizens. With this in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join us for our virtual Microsoft Azure Government DC meetup, Gov IT modernization in the era of COVID-19, Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. EDT by joining: www.aka.ms/AzureGovMeetupLive During this event, which is free and open to the public...
Announcing availability of Azure Sentinel, Azure AD Domain Services and DDoS Protection in Azure Government
Azure Government continues to invest in delivering new cloud capabilities to government customers at a rapid pace. On the security side, we’ve recently added several new services to give you greater choice and help you optimize the security of your digital estate. New security services available in Azure Government include Azure Sentinel, Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD Domain Services), and Azure DDoS Protection. Learn more about these services below, read about additional new services in our March blog on new services in Azure Government to enhance your security posture, and reach out to ...
Azure Government Secret extends partner opportunity with marketplace program for ISVs
Microsoft Azure Government Secret helps government customers accelerate classified missions, and along with the announcement of accreditation at Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503, we’re expanding the Azure Marketplace to provide customers in the DoD and IC community with easier access to a broad range of software solutions. Preparing your solution for the Azure Government Secret Marketplace The Azure Government Secret Marketplace enables customers to find, buy, and deploy ISV solutions from within the air-gapped environment. For ISVs currently servin...
Azure Government releases 40+ new services, nearing parity with Azure commercial
Ongoing investments deliver rapid pace of innovation for mission across all data classifications In the last six months we’ve released more than 40 new services in Azure Government – along with 101 total services now accredited at FedRAMP High – continuing our commitment to invest in Azure commercial parity and rapidly deliver new Azure Government capabilities to support mission needs across all data classifications. As we’ve talked with mission owners, you’ve asked us to bring many of these services into the environment to enhance your ability to innovate faster. Services like Azure Sentinel, which gives yo...
New networking services in Azure Government
Improve connectivity and security with networking services that help you accelerate service delivery, optimize traffic and privacy, and shield VMs from common threats. New networking services in Azure Government include Azure Bastion, Azure Private Link, Azure Front Door, Azure Content Delivery Network, Azure Virtual WAN, and Azure DNS private zones. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure Bastion Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service that provides secure and...
New container and compute options in Azure Government
Containerize apps more easily with new compute services available in Azure Government including Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) and Azure Container Instances (ACI); and use new NV series Virtual Machines for GPU accelerated graphics applications in scenarios such as data visualization, simulation, CAD, and rendering and streaming content. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) The fully managed Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes deploy...
Power Apps and more new services for web apps in Azure Government
Accelerate web app development with Power Apps and a suite of new website services available in Azure Government including Azure Maps and Application Gateway v2. These and other web services in Azure Government can help you more easily create engaging, informative, and performant web experiences. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Power Apps Building apps with Power Apps helps everyone from business analysts to professional developers work more efficiently together. Sol...
Join us March 18: Gov Cloud Demopalooza (now virtual)
We will be virtual only this month for the Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup, Gov Cloud Demopalooza, on Wednesday, March 18. RSVP and get the broadcast link on our Meetup site. We have an exciting showcase of demos lined up so grab your dinner and drink(s), engage in Q&A, and enjoy our Gov Cloud Demopalooza! Featured speakers and demos Please help us get the word out that we are virtual this month, and be sure to invite your colleagues and connections to RSVP and get the broadcast link on our Meetup site. About us With over 3,000 members, the Azure Government DC u...
New fully managed SQL and reserved storage for Azure Government customers
Modernize your workloads more easily and cost-effectively with new Azure Government options including Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Dedicated Host and Azure Storage Reservations. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure SQL Database Managed Instance Accelerate your on-premises SQL Server migrations without changing the application code with Managed Instance. Always have the latest SQL Server capabilities in the cloud with an evergreen SQL database that requires ...
Accelerate modernization with new migration services in Azure Government
A common need of many government customers is the ability to migrate massive amounts of data to the cloud during modernization initiatives. Depending on your requirements, you can select from a wide range of tools and programs to support data migration. In this blog, we’ll cover a few of the newer migration services in Azure Government, including Azure Database Migration Services, Azure Data Box, and Azure Data Box Heavy for large lifts. Learn more about these services below, and download Azure Government Migration and Modernization Playbook for comprehensive guidance. If you’re a federal customer looking f...
Expanding management and governance services in Azure Government
Among the new Azure Government services we’re spotlighting this month are several new management and governance services: Power Automate, Azure Resource Graph, Cloud Shell, Guest Configuration, and Nomination Portal. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Power Automate Power Automate is a service that helps you create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data and more. It provides a low-code platform...
New AI and Machine Learning services in Azure Government
Azure Government continues to invest in delivering new cloud capabilities to government customers at a rapid pace. Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue highlighting a wide range of new services along with how-to resources to help you accelerate modernization initiatives. New Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning services available in Azure Government include Azure Cognitive Search, QnA Maker, and Azure Machine Learning. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azu...
New Azure services for mission-critical analytics
Azure Government continues to invest in delivering new cloud capabilities to government customers at a rapid pace. Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight a wide range of new services along with how-to resources to help you accelerate modernization initiatives. New analytics services available in Azure Government include Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Data Explorer, and Azure Data Factory. Learn more about these services below, and reach out to us with any questions at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. For a complete list of services, view Azure services by region. Azure Stream Analytics Azure Stream Analy...
New services in Azure Government to enhance your security posture
Azure Government continues to invest in delivering new cloud capabilities to government customers at a rapid pace. Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight a wide range of new services along with how-to resources to help you accelerate modernization initiatives. On the security side, we’ve recently added several new services to give you greater choice and help you optimize the security of your digital estate. We’ll continue to bring new capabilities into Azure Government in the coming months; in line with our ongoing commitment to deliver the most secure and compliant cloud for the needs of government customer...
Azure Government continues to expand FedRAMP High coverage
21 new services added to FedRAMP High ATO as part of ongoing work to make cloud innovation more accessible to government agencies Microsoft now has 101 services covered by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) for Azure Government - more services than any other cloud provider. You can find a full list of Azure Government services with FedRAMP High coverage in the Azure Government audit scope documentation. Which new services are now in scope for FedRAMP? ...
New cloud playbook: Migrate and modernize with Azure Government
Looking for strategies, technical how-tos, and resources that will help ease your government agency’s cloud journey? Check out and download our newly-released Azure Government Migration and Modernization Playbook. This playbook is designed for anyone interested in or working with cloud – specifically, IaaS and PaaS. It details ways you can accelerate and optimize your Azure Government deployment by providing a clear roadmap; and helps you understand best practices for your cloud journey. Throughout the playbook, we point you to more resources, documentation and how-tos. Download the playbook today, and be s...
Supply Chain Risk Management for Zero Trust with Microsoft Azure (6 of 6)
This is the last blog of a six-part series where we’ve demonstrated the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this sixth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for supply chain risk management in Zero Trust models. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, Senior Director, Enterprise Cybersecurity Group and Adam Dimopoulos, Azure Global Customer Engineering. What is supply chain risk management? The Microsoft Z...
Insider Threat Monitoring for Zero Trust with Microsoft Azure (5 of 6)
This is the fifth in a six-part blog series where we will demonstrate the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this fifth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Microsoft Azure for insider threats in Zero Trust models. The last blog in the series will include monitoring supply chain risk management. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, Senior Director, Enterprise Cybersecurity Group and Adam Dimopoulos, Azure Global Custome...
Join us Feb. 26: The Need for Speed – Realizing DevSecOps in Gov
Citizens increasingly expect higher performance and quality of government services and applications – putting developers on the hook to deliver new, secure capabilities to their agencies faster than ever. To keep pace, agencies can implement DevSecOps– a methodology that leverages agile principles, automation and integrates security from the start. To hear how to realize DevSecOps in government, we invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community for a meetup on Wednesday, Feb 26 from 6 – 8:30 p.m., 1776 at the New America Building in Washington, DC. During this meetup, which is ...
Enforcing Policy for Zero Trust with Azure Policy (4 of 6)
This is the fourth in a six-part blog series where we will demonstrate the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this fourth blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Azure Policy for enforcing access control in Zero Trust models. Additional blogs in the series will include investigating insider attacks and monitoring supply chain risk management. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, Senior Director, Enterprise Cybersecurit...
Updated Azure Government session schedule at Ignite The Tour Government – Feb 6-7
If you are at Microsoft Ignite The Tour Government, make sure you join us for our Azure Government specific sessions. Day 1 (Feb.6) Day 2 (Feb.7) Be sure to take advantage of opportunities to connect with our experts and partners, as well as check out the various demo stations in the Hub. Also, make sure to stop by the Azure Government DC meetup user community area. We hope to see you there!
Monitoring Cloud Security for Zero Trust with Azure Sentinel (3 of 6)
This is the third in a six-part blog series where we will demonstrate the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this third blog of the series we will explore how to leverage Azure Sentinel for security monitoring in Zero Trust models. Additional blogs in the series will include leveraging policy, investigating insider attacks and monitoring supply chain risk management. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, Senior Director, Enterprise Cy...
Azure Blueprint for FedRAMP High is now available in Azure Government and Public clouds
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. Our recently released Azure Blueprint for FedRAMP High is now available in Azure Government and Public clouds. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) provides a catalog of FedRAMP High, Moderate, and Low baseline security controls, for federal information systems. Our new FedRAMP High blueprint ...
QnA Maker in Azure Government
In this episode of the Microsoft Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Software Engineer on the Azure Government team, talks with Russ Williams, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft supporting government customers, about QnA Maker in Azure Government. Russ begins by describing what QnA Maker is: a cloud-based service that easily enables creation of a question-and-answer system over your existing data – all with cutting edge Microsoft AI technology for language understanding. Russ shows a complete architecture for a system leveraging QnA Maker – and demos step-by-step how to build a soluti...
Protecting Cloud Workloads for Zero Trust with Azure Security Center (2 of 6)
This is the second in a six-part blog series where we will demonstrate the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this blog we will explore how to leverage Azure Security Center for hybrid security management and threat protection in Zero Trust Architectures. Additional blogs in the series will include leveraging policy, investigating insider attacks and monitoring supply chain risk management. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, Senior...
Azure Stream Analytics in Azure Government
In this episode of the Microsoft Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Software Engineer on the Azure Government team, talks with Jean-Sebastien Brunner, Principal Program Manager on the Azure Stream Analytics team, about Azure Stream Analytics in Azure Government. Jean-Sebastien starts out by explaining what Stream Analytics is and what problem it solves. In modern systems, real-time analytics and data flow is not only preferred, it is absolutely essential to making critical decisions in real-time. Jean-Sebastien demos how easy it is to get up and running with Stream Analytics in Azure Go...
Join us: Microsoft Ignite The Tour Government – Feb. 6-7
Microsoft Ignite The Tour is bringing the very best of Microsoft Ignite to Washington, DC, Feb. 6-7, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Time is running out to secure your spot for two days of technical training led by Microsoft experts and your community. During this conference, you’ll learn new ways to build solutions, migrate and manage infrastructure, and connect with local industry leaders and peers. We also invite you to connect with us, the Azure Government team, as we present the following sessions: Overall there will be 100+ deep-dive sessions and worksh...
Implementing Zero Trust with Microsoft Azure: Identity and Access Management (1 of 6)
This is the first in a six-part blog series where we will demonstrate the application of Zero Trust concepts for securing federal information systems with Microsoft Azure. In this first blog of the series we will explore identity and access management with Azure Active Directory. Additional blogs will include protecting cloud workloads, monitoring cloud security, policy enforcement, investigating insider attacks and monitoring supply chain risk management. This blog series is coauthored by TJ Banasik, CISSP-ISSEP, ISSAP, ISSMP, Sr. Program Manager, Azure Global Customer Engineering, Mark McIntyre, CISSP, ...
Join us: Jumpstart your gov agency’s path to 2020 cloud vision – Jan 29
More and more government agencies are reaching the tipping point with cloud; going beyond lift-and-shift as the full potential of cloud is becoming crystal clear. Without a doubt, 2020 will bring even greater focus on ways agencies can take advantage of cloud capabilities to enable their mission. With this in mind, I invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government user community as we kick off the New Year with a can't-miss meetup, Jumpstart your gov agency’s path to 2020 cloud vision, on Wednesday, Jan 29 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 New America in Washington, DC. During this free event, which is ...
Azure Maps in Azure Government
In this episode of the Microsoft Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Software Engineer on the Azure Government team, talks with Chris Pendleton, Principal PM Manager on the Microsoft Azure Maps team about Azure Maps in Azure Government. Chris explains what makes Azure Maps different from other mapping solutions available. He goes into depth about how Azure Maps provides a truly unified experience including route efficiency, traffic management, geo-fencing, and more. For government customers, Azure Maps provides compliance with Azure Security, Azure Active Directory Tenancy, GDPR, Acce...
Securing the endpoint: designing SaaS service implementations to meet federal policy (2 of 4)
Several federal initiatives such as CDM (Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation), TIC (Trusted Internet Connection) increasingly becoming similar, in that identical tools and approaches such as Zero Trust can be used to meet multiple federal mandates. This convergence provides an opportunity to reduce complexity while helping agencies improve their security posture and increase IT efficiency. This blog, the second of a four-part series on meeting federal mandates with SaaS services, provides a deep dive on securing endpoints regardless of their location. The first blog focused on securing mobile. Adopting a Ze...
Cloud Shell in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft Azure Government, talks with Bingfeng Li, Senior Software Engineer on the Cloud Shell team at Microsoft, about Cloud Shell in Azure Government. Cloud Shell is a fully featured browser-based command line environment that is ready to run inside the Azure Government portal. Bingfeng explains that this means there is no need to install tools or runtimes directly on a developer/IT pro workstation – but open a browser and the full command line experience is at your fingertips. In many government agencies th...
Securing mobile: Designing SaaS service implementations to meet federal policy (1 of 4)
Several federal initiatives such as CDM (Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation) and TIC (Trusted Internet Connection) are increasingly becoming similar, in that identical tools and approaches such as Zero Trust can be used to meet multiple federal mandates. This convergence provides an opportunity to reduce complexity while helping agencies improve their security posture and increase IT efficiency. This blog, the first of a four-part series on meeting federal mandates with SaaS services, explains how government agencies can implement SaaS services such as Office 365 to help achieve compliance with Department o...
Azure DevOps Server in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Azure Government, talks with Jason Ingram, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, about Azure DevOps Server in Azure Government. Jason starts by explaining what Azure DevOps Server is – and how it is different than the Azure DevOps SaaS offering. Most notable, Azure DevOps Server can be used to create a DevOps experience inside a completely private network on Azure Government with no outside connection to the internet. In this demo-heavy video, Jason shows step-by-step how to set up this private DevOps ...
Simplify management of Federal Tax Information (FTI) with Azure Government and the new Azure Blueprint for IRS 1075
Contributors include Meladie Espiritu, Senior Program Manager, Azure Global and Abhijeet Jhala (AJ), Director Modern Government Partner Solutions, State Local Government Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. In today’s digital and data economy, revenue and tax collection agencies face modern challenges including aging, costly, and inflexible legacy infrastruct...
Azure Blueprint for FedRAMP Moderate is now available for Azure Government
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. Our recently released Azure Blueprint for FedRAMP Moderate is now available in Azure Government. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) provides a catalog of FedRAMP High, Moderate, and Low baseline security controls, for federal information systems. Our new FedRAMP Moderate blueprint maps a co...
Join us! Driving IoT and Edge Innovation in Gov – Nov 20
The next wave of computing is taking shape around us – from smart devices and sensors that can speak, listen and action; to compute-enabled in remote parts of the globe – without requiring always-on connectivity to the cloud to make real-time, insightful decisions. This is the intelligent edge, and it’s defining the next wave of innovation and how organizations will address some of the world’s most pressing problems. To gain insights on the latest Internet of Things (IoT) and intelligent edge solutions transforming government, RSVP and join us for a Microsoft Azure Government Meetup, Driving IoT and Edge Innov...
Join us! Government cybersecurity in the era of cloud – Oct 23
In support of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Microsoft Azure Government user community invites you to RSVP and join us for a meetup on “Government cybersecurity in the era of cloud,” on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 New America in Washington, DC. During this free event, which is open to the public, government and industry speakers will share strategies and insights on: Featured speakers include: For more details, be sure to check out the agenda and RSVP to join us for this free event. In addition to...
Innovating for government from the commercial cloud to the tactical edge
From our commercial cloud to the tactical edge, we continue to deliver more innovation to empower government agencies to advance their mission. In addition to the recent product news enabling government to advance ‘tech intensity’, here are some recent highlights of new capabilities in Azure to support the full spectrum of government needs. A priority for many government customers is accelerating their path to compliance in the cloud. We continue to lead the industry with the broadest compliance coverage and to advance new initiatives to accelerate and simplify your path to compliance: Gain more options wit...
Join us Oct. 11 in DC: Women in Cloud + Government Breakfast
With our nation’s capital consistently ranked as the best US city for women in technology, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a Women in Cloud + Government breakfast on Friday, Oct 11 from 7:30 – 10:30 a.m. with accomplished technology leaders who are driving government innovation. During this event, held at Microsoft’s Innovation and Policy Center in Washington, DC, panelists will share their journey and experiences within the industry, and then we’ll open the floor for Q&A. Following the panels, there will be opportunities for networking and to experience innovation through a digital transformation sh...
How to optimize your cloud investment with Cost Management for Azure Government
As the government accelerates its cloud adoption, it becomes increasingly important to proactively manage costs. Azure Cost Management is a suite of tools that are designed to help you visualize, manage, and optimize costs across Azure. I recently filmed a YouTube video where I had the opportunity to present the main features available for government customers within the Azure portal. This post is meant to discuss those features again and provide further sources of documentation for you to browse as you begin your Cost Management journey. To learn more about how to approach Cost Management, see our arti...
Azure Government continues to expand FedRAMP High coverage
13 new services added to FedRAMP High ATO as part of ongoing work to make commercial innovation more accessible to government agencies Microsoft now has 80 services covered by the FedRAMP High Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) for Azure Government in the continental United States. Why is FedRAMP compliance important? The new era of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge is empowering agencies to lead citizens through digital transformation. In many cases, however, government agencies must find a balance between cost efficiency and the most robust security for their IT systems. To help agencie...
New Azure Blueprint for NIST SP 800-53 R4 now available on Azure Government
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. Our recently released Azure Blueprint for NIST SP 800-53 R4 is now available in Azure Government. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publishes a catalog of security and privacy controls, Special Publication (SP) 800-53, for federal information systems. Our new NIST SP 800-53 R4 blueprint maps a core ...
Join us! Navigating a data-driven government in the cloud – Sept 16
The President’s Management Agenda calls for the use of government’s data as a strategic asset to improve operations and effectiveness in serving citizens. Agencies are on the hook to modernize for a data-driven world and deploy data strategies that will help solve mission challenges. To gain insights on how leading government and industry organizations are navigating this data-driven world, please RSVP and join us for a Microsoft Azure Government Meetup, Navigating a data-driven government in the cloud on Monday, Sept. 16 at 1776 New America in Washington, DC. During this meetup you’ll hear about: ...
Secure Azure Computing Architecture for DoD for SCCA Compliance on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager talks with Jason Henderson, Cloud Architect Microsoft Federal, about the Secure Azure Computing Architecture (SACA) in Azure Government. Jason starts by explaining how the SACA relates to the Secure Cloud Computing Architecture (SCCA) policy, and how the SACA enables Azure Government customers to streamline the setup of their environment to easily comply with the SCCA. Jason discussing various services that can be used with the SACA – particularly with the DoD IL5 expansion in Azure Government. Jason shows a demo of ...
Azure Batch on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager, talks with Peter Shultz, Program Manager, on the Azure Batch team, about Azure Batch in Azure Government. The discussion begins with Peter describing what Azure Batch is and how Azure Batch is ideal for optimizing workloads that are parallelizable. Peter describes Azure Batch concepts and capabilities, while also enumerating several ideal use cases for government scenarios. Azure Batch can be used as a stand-alone service, or in conjunction with other Azure services. Peter shows a demo in which a serverless Azure Fu...
Join us! Mastering cloud governance and management for gov – Aug 28
Managing governance and cloud spend are often cited as top challenges for government. And, while effective governance to ensure control over costs, performance, and security is essential for cloud success, many agencies are not fully leveraging the various tools, resources, and automation capabilities that can enable success. To hear how agencies can address these challenges, we invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government community for our next meetup, “Mastering cloud governance and management in government” on Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 at the New America building in Washing...
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager, talks with Sachin Dubey, Software Engineer, on the Azure Government Engineering team, to talk about Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2 in Azure Government. The discussion starts with an explanation of what ADLS is and many of the advantages of ADLS compared to traditional blob storage. Sachin highlights ADLS Gen2 capabilities such as HDFS endpoints, full backward compatibility, and cross-platform capabilities. Sachin then shows a couple demos of ADLS Gen2 on Azure Government – starting with a basic storage account,...
Terraform on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager talks with Kevin Mack, Cloud Solution Architect, supporting State and Local Government at Microsoft, about Terraform on Azure Government. Kevin begins by describing what Terraform is, as well as explaining advantages of using Terraform over Azure Resource Manager (ARM), including the ability to do “what if” scenarios with Terraform’s plan feature. Kevin discusses the simplified syntax of Terraform and the features of multiple cloud providers. Kevin shows multiple demos of Terraform starting with a simple example prov...
Azure Cost Management on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, Principal Program Manager talks with Adam Wise, Program Manager, on the Azure Cost Management team, about Azure Cost Management in Azure Government. Adam starts by explaining what Cost Management is – and how it can enable government customers to spend taxpayer money more efficiently. Adam shows the primary aspects of Cost Management including cost analysis and export, as well as creating and management budgets. Adam shows the flexibility of cost management – for example, how it can be applied on a granular level to a small number of resource...
Azure and Azure Government support for NERC CIP standards
This blog was co-authored by Larry Cochrane , Principal Program Manager, Microsoft. We recently published two blogs on how you can use Azure Government to meet export control regulations: Export control implication on Azure and Azure Government and Managing export controls in Azure and Azure Government. This blog provides another deep dive on compliance for bulk power systems owners, operators, and users, focused on current Azure and Azure Government support for NERC CIP standards as of July 2019. All bulk power system owners, operators, and users must comply with NERC CIP standards. For detailed informatio...
Managing export controls in Azure and Azure Government
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. In Part 1 of this blog series, we provided an overview of the U.S. export control regulations and their implications on cloud computing. In this Part 2, we cover Azure and Azure Government features in support of export control requirements. Microsoft provides customers with contractual commitments, operational processe...
Join us! Moving smart: Cloud accelerators for government – July 31
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, only 11 percent of federal IT systems are running on the cloud while the Department of Defense uses cloud for about 3 percent of its tech. As many government agencies look to accelerate their drive to the cloud, they can encounter various roadblocks to picking up the pace. With this in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government user community for our next meetup, Moving smart: Cloud accelerators for government, on July 31 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 at New America in Washington, DC. (Note: this is a new location from previou...
Export control implications on Azure and Azure Government
Disclaimer: Customers are wholly responsible for ensuring their own compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Information provided in this post does not constitute legal advice, and customers should consult their legal advisors for any questions regarding regulatory compliance. This blog is the first of two parts containing a review of the current U.S. export control regulations and considerations for cloud computing. In the second part, we’ll cover Azure features and commitments in support of export control requirements Export-related definitions vary among various export control regulations; ho...
Building automated workflows on Azure Government with Logic Apps
Azure Logic Apps allows users to automate and orchestrate tasks, business processes, and workflows when you need to integrate apps, data, systems, and services across enterprises or organizations. With an easy-to-use, drag-drop user interface and hundreds of pre-built connectors allowing easy integration with other applications and services, Logic Apps simplifies how you design and build scalable solutions. Imagine being able to build an end-to-end application that writes to a database, can plug into other platforms such as Twitter, Dropbox as well as first-party services such as Outlook and Dynamics – without...
The need for speed: Azure DevOps
I recently had the opportunity to discuss Azure DevOps at the Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup. During my presentation, The Need for Speed – Azure DevOps, I demonstrated how a new member of a dev team can quickly integrate and become productive with an existing project using Azure DevOps which facilitates productivity by combining multiple aspects of DevOps into a single, integrated UI. Azure DevOps doesn’t just benefit developer onboarding, however. Whether your team is just starting off in their DevOps transformation journey; or, you already have robust version control, work item tracking, and continuous...
Azure Blueprints and compliance on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, principal program manager, Microsoft Azure Government, talks with Alex Frankel, program manager on the Azure Governance team, about Azure Blueprints and compliance on Azure Government. Historically, Azure Blueprints were compliance “checklists” that helped streamline the ATO process for different compliance regimes. Alex explains how the new Azure Blueprints is now a full-fledged service inside the Azure Government portal that automates the process of achieving compliance on Azure Government. Alex shows numerous demos in the Azure portal t...
Bot Service and LUIS on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, principal program manager, Microsoft Azure Government, talks with Sam Chan, senior program manager, Microsoft Azure Government, about the Bot Service and LUIS on Azure Government. Sam begins by explaining what both the Bot Service and LUIS are – and how these exciting AI technologies can dramatically enhance the productivity of an agency by implementing a custom chat bot. Sam then shows a demo of getting started building a chat bot, including custom language understanding features provided by LUIS – all within the high-compliance environme...
Snowflake now available on Azure Government
Snowflake, the data warehouse built for the cloud, is now generally available on Microsoft Azure Government. Snowflake is a data warehouse-as-a-service, which requires no management and features separate compute, storage, and cloud services that can scale and change independently. Snowflake’s architecture provides complete relational database support for both structured data, such as CSV files and tables, and semi-structured data, including JSON, Avro, Parquet, etc., all within a single, logically integrated solution. “The general availability of Snowflake on Microsoft Azure Government marks the first time ...
Join us! Emerging tech in gov – June 26
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic processing automation continues to create buzz throughout many industries and government is no exception. The US federal government budget for fiscal year 2020 calls on agencies to adopt emerging technologies to better empower their workforce, and accelerate and innovate public services. Key to moving forward is the ability for agencies to define emerging tech use cases and get started with piloting new ideas. Roadblocks can include limitations with budget, procurement process, and skills required to deploy these technologies. RSVP and join us to hear f...
Knowledge Mining with Azure Search
Recently, Uche Adegbite and I had the opportunity to discuss Knowledge Mining with Azure Search at the Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup. In our presentation we demonstrated how to use Cognitive Search to take your knowledge discovery capabilities to the next level. This brief post is a follow-up to our presentation where I make the distinction between Azure Search and Cognitive Search, and point you to resources that will teach you how to create an advanced knowledge mining solution for your organization. What is the difference between Azure Search and Cognitive Search? On occasion you may hear people use A...
Migrate and Modernize with Kubernetes on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, principal program manager, Microsoft Azure Government, sits down with Vishwas Lele, CTO, AIS, to discuss migrating and modernizing with Kubernetes on Azure Government. The discussion begins with Vishwas explaining the “traditional” approaches for migrating workloads to the cloud: (1) Rehost (lift-n-shift), (2) Refactor (PaaS approach) and (3) Reimagine (cloud-native rewrite). Each of these traditional approaches has pros and cons. Vishwas then explains how Kubernetes provides an opportunity to fundamentally rethink these traditional app...
Data Science Virtual Machine on Azure Government – Something for Everyone
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, principal program manager, Azure Government, sits down with Zach Kramer, principal group PM manager, Azure Government, to discuss numerous aspects of the Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM) in Azure Government. Steve and Zach show how the DSVM is an ideal environment for data scientists creating custom machine learning models. The DSVM gives you an environment with all data science tools already pre-installed, with an ability to choose your preferred operating system and a large range of compute choices from CPU to GPU for larger workloads...
The need for speed: DevOps in gov
Keeping pace with mission demands is an increasing challenge for government. Developers are on the hook to deliver new capabilities to their agencies faster than ever. To hear how DevOps and cloud can help agencies accelerate their mission speed and capabilities, RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community for a meetup on Wednesday, May 22 from 6 – 8:30 p.m., at 1776 in Crystal City, Virginia. During this meetup, you’ll hear from government and industry experts who will: Featured speakers are: We hope you’ll check out the agenda and RSVP t...
Azure Government expands FedRAMP High coverage
10 new services added to FedRAMP High ATO as part of ongoing work to make commercial innovation more accessible to government agencies Microsoft now has 67 services covered by the FedRAMP High Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) for Azure Government in the continental United States. Why is FedRAMP compliance important? The new era of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge is empowering agencies to lead citizens through digital transformation. In many cases, government agencies must balance between cost efficiency and the most robust security for their IT systems. To help government agencies a...
Advanced Data Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti, principal program manager with Azure Government, sits down to talk with Ajay Jagannathan of the Azure SQL Database Engineering team about Advanced Data Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government. Ajay and Steve begin with a discussion of the types of security features customers have been asking for and how Azure SQL Database wraps these features into a unified package of intelligent security capabilities. Ajay discusses the three major pillars of this advanced data security: 1) Data Classification, 2) Vulnerability Assessments, a...
DoD IL5 scope expands to all Azure Government regions
Earlier this month we announced that Microsoft has expanded the IL5 Provisional Authorization (PA) granted by the Department of Defense (DoD) to all Azure Government regions. This expanded coverage brings more PaaS features and services at Impact Level 5 (IL5) to customers than any other cloud provider. With six regions across the United States now offering services at IL5, mission owners benefit from greater choice in terms of cost optimization, decreased latency, expanded geo-redundancy, and options for disaster recovery (DR). Today, more than 25 services are available across all Azure Government regions at ...
Enabling government to advance the mission
Azure Government Secret now in private preview and pending accreditation Azure Government Secret delivers comprehensive and mission enabling cloud services to US Federal Civilian, Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and US government partners working within Secret enclaves. Developed using the same foundational principles and architecture as Azure commercial cloud, the Azure Government Secret regions are built to maintain the security and integrity of classified workloads while enabling fast access to sensitive, mission-critical information. These dedicated datacenter regions are built ...
Join us! How AI is creating what’s next in government
As AI emerges from research labs and IT back offices and into the mainstream, the transformational possibilities of AI for both businesses and government are enormous. According to the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, released earlier this year, "AI promises to drive growth of the United States economy, enhance our economic and national security, and improve our quality of life." To discuss how AI is creating what’s next in government, be sure to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government user community for a meetup on Wednesday, April 24 from 6 – 8:30 p.m., at 1...
Is there an easy button for gov IT modernization?
To keep up with our country’s pace of innovation and ensure mission success, government agencies are under more pressure than ever to accelerate their IT modernization projects (and for some, just get them off the ground!). As agencies incur various challenges in their progress, they might be wondering if there’s an easy button for modernization. To explore successful strategies and hear practical execution tips for IT modernization, we invite you to RSVP and join us Wednesday, March 27 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. for a Microsoft Azure Government DC meetup, Is there an easy button for gov IT modernization?, at 1776 in ...
Welcome to the new Azure Government Blog
Today, we launched the Azure Government Blog on the Microsoft Dev Blogs platform which provides a more user-friendly design and better capabilities to help you stay connected with our developer community even when you’re AFK (away from keyboard). Over the last few months, a number of developer blogs also transitioned to this new platform. All blogs will preserve existing content as well as your bookmarks and RSS feed subscriptions. However, if you have any issues reaching your desired content, please report it to us through the Feedback button in the lower right corner. The Azure Government blog will contin...
The Azure Government blog is moving to a new platform
Tomorrow, we’ll be moving the Azure Government blog to a new platform. What will stay the same is our focus on serving our government customers and partners with a dedicated channel for all things Azure Government. With our new channel under Microsoft Dev Blogs, you’ll experience a more modern, clean design, along with capabilities that make it easier for readers to discover and share valuable content. You’ll continue to receive all the information and news from our teams, your RSS feeds will continue to seamlessly deliver posts, and any of your bookmarked links will re-direct to the new URL location. Th...
Enhance data protection and compliance with customer managed keys
This is the third blog in a three-part series on security in Azure Government co-authored by Robert Jaffee, Sr. Program Manager, and Diego Lapiduz, Chief Information Security Architect, with Microsoft Azure Global Government. (In case you missed them, check out the first and second blogs: Six tips for securing identity in the cloud and Five tips for securing your IaaS workloads. Secure key management is essential to protecting data in the cloud. With Azure Government, you can use Azure Key Vault to encrypt keys and small secrets like passwords that use keys stored in hardware security modules (HSMs). For more ...
Five tips for securing your IaaS workloads
This is the second blog in a three-part series on security in Azure Government co-authored by Robert Jaffee, Sr. Program Manager, and Diego Lapiduz, Chief Information Security Architect, with Microsoft Azure Global Government. (In case you missed it, check out the first blog: Six tips for securing identity in the cloud.) In this blog, we’ll cover specific recommendations for improving your IaaS security posture, focusing on data protection, network security, and security management, including threat protection. Data protection: Ensure confidentiality and integrity of data by leveraging multiple encryption o...
Join us: Government cloud strategies: What to know – Feb. 27
Cloud technologies are critical to keeping pace with innovation and securing America’s technical advantage. Cloud enables leading edge solutions for federal and military agency missions; ranging from improved citizen services and safety to protecting our warfighters and national security. The importance of cloud to government is evident in the recently-released Department of Defense Cloud Strategy as well as the Office of Management and Budget’s Cloud Smart Strategy proposal released in September 2018. With this in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community on Wednesda...
Six tips for securing identity in the cloud
This 3-part blog series on security in Azure Government was co-authored by Robert Jaffe, Sr. Program Manager, and Diego Lapiduz, Chief Information Security Architect, with Microsoft Azure Global Government. Over the last year, as modernization has accelerated, we’ve started to see many customers turning to cloud services as an asset in fighting evolving cybersecurity threats. In this three-part series on Azure Government security, we’ll cover some of the top reasons why and provide guidance on best practices for securing your Azure Government resources. This first blog: ‘Six tips for securing identity in th...
Open Source DevOps in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Harshal Dharia, Cloud Solution Architect in US Federal at Microsoft, about open source DevOps in Azure Government. Having a reliable and secure DevOps pipeline is one of the most important factors to a successful development project. However, different organizations and agencies often have different tools for DevOps. Harshal starts out by discussing various DevOps tools available and specifically focuses this demo-heavy talk on open source DevOps tools in Azure Government. Harshal show how Terraform and Jenkins can be used in a robu...
Azure Advisor for Azure Government now generally available
Azure Advisor is a free Azure service that analyzes your Azure usage and configurations and provides personalized recommendations to help you optimize your resources for high availability, security, performance, and cost. Azure Advisor is now generally available (GA) for Azure Government. Get the most out of Azure Government with Azure Advisor There’s a lot you can do with Azure Government. With so many services and features, it can be challenging to keep up with best practices and optimize your workloads. That’s why we created Azure Advisor. You can think of Azure Advisor as a personalized cloud consult...
VS Code Extensions for Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti once again sits down with Yujin Hong, Program Manager on the Azure Government Engineering team, to discuss many of the incredible VS Code Extensions for Azure. VS Code has quickly become the most popular editor in the world – there are numerous reasons for this, but one of the key reasons is VS Code’s extensibility. There are numerous VS Code Extensions available for Azure, and now these same extensions can be utilized for Azure Government! In this demo-heavy video, Yujin will show the unified authentication experience that enable all these co...
Azure Database for MySQL in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Sachin Dubey, of the Azure Government Engineering team, about Azure Database for MySQL in Azure Government. MySQL is one of the most popular open source relational databases ever – but running it at an Enterprise scale has its challenges just like any other database. Now with a fully managed PaaS offering, Azure Database for MySQL provides the perfect unification of the underlying MySQL database which developers know and love with the world-class security, scalability, and reliability of Azure. Sachin discusses the benefits of Azure...
Women in Tech Lunch Panel: Our Journey to Ignite Government Innovation
Monday, February 4, 2019 A recent announcement from the Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser highlighted a study naming the District of Columbia as the best city in the country for women in technology1. Women currently make up 38.5% of the tech workforce in the district, well over the nation’s average of 25.9%. We’re interested in learning more and exploring how this diversity is fueling innovation in government. To this end, we’re bringing together a panel of accomplished technology leaders for a lunch session at Microsoft Ignite | The Tour - Government on Monday, February 4. Register today and join us ...
Managed Identity in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Mohit Dewan, of the Azure Government Engineering team, about Managed Identities on Azure Government. Mohit starts out by explaining what Managed Identities is and how leveraging it can result in a significantly more secure application. Mohit then demonstrates managed identities both for a simple IaaS application as well as a PaaS application – both securely connecting to Azure Key Vault in Azure Government. Whether you’re storing certificates, connection strings, keys, or any other secrets – managed identities is an invaluable tool ...
Join us: Accelerating Gov Cloud in a Cloud Smart World – Jan. 23
Without a doubt, cloud computing is playing a central role in agency efforts to modernize their IT infrastructure. Agencies have made great strides in understanding the benefits and challenges of cloud. With this in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community as we kickoff the year with a meetup on: “Jumpstart 2019: Accelerating Gov Cloud in a Cloud Smart World,” Wednesday, Jan. 23, 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Crystal City, Virginia. During this meetup, you will hear about various strategies and best practices to get started with, and accelerate, cloud. Some topics we'...
Serverless in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down to talk with Yujin Hong, Program Manager on the Azure Government Engineering team, about Serverless computing in Azure Government. Yujin and Steve start out by discussing the evolution of cloud computing that led to the rise of “serverless”, including a discussion of what “serverless” really means. Yujin and Steve then show demos of the serverless technologies that are available in Azure Government today, such as Azure Functions, Azure Event Grid, and Azure Logic Apps. Along the way they’ll discuss the benefits of each technology wit...
Join us for the Azure Government Innovation Tour – coming to a city near you!
If you’re a government-focused developer, IT pro, or mission leader striving to learn the latest on Azure Government and optimize your skills and productivity, be sure to register today and join us for our Azure Government Innovation Tour coming to Raleigh, Chicago, DC, Austin and Atlanta. This can’t-miss event showcases 50+ Azure Government demos across a wide range of technologies including PaaS, IaaS, AI and Machine Learning, Azure Data Services, Serverless, Containers, and numerous tips and tricks. At our first stop in Sacramento, participants ranged from current Azure Government users with active proj...
Building automated workflows on Azure Government with Logic Apps
Azure Logic Apps allows users to automate and orchestrate tasks, business processes, and workflows when you need to integrate apps, data, systems, and services across enterprises or organizations. Logic Apps simplifies how you design and build scalable solutions with an easy to use drag-drop user interface and hundreds of pre-built connectors allowing easy integration with other applications and services. The video below shows several examples of working with Azure Logic Apps in Azure Government. We start out by creating a workflow from scratch using a scheduling trigger. Every logic app workflow starts with a...
Fall roundup of recent Azure Government announcements
We’re continuing to focus on delivering the innovations our government customers and partners have requested. In this blog, you’ll find a brief summary of our recent announcements from late summer and early fall for your reference. Also, we invite you to join us for the Microsoft Ignite | The Tour | Government, Feb. 4-5, in Washington, DC. This is a free technical training event for developers, tech professionals, and mission leaders. Our top engineers will bring two days of deep dive sessions, hands-on skill-building, and networking opportunities. Be sure to register to join us. New capabilities to enable yo...
US Army Corps of Engineers get real-time dredging insights from moving to Azure
With a mission to strengthen our nation’s security by building and maintaining infrastructure, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a federal agency under the Department of Defense with approximately 38,000 civilians and soldiers delivering engineering services in more than 130 countries worldwide. One of the key responsibilities of USACE is to dredge America’s waterways to support the movement of commodities across the country. Nearly 25,000 miles of waterways and channels and 400 ports, harbors, and turning basins comprise the United States’ national waterway network. These marine thoroughfar...
Meetup replay: Women Leading Government Cybersecurity
In support of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, we hosted a special edition Microsoft Azure Government Meetup, Women Leading Government Cybersecurity at 1776 in Washington, DC. In partnership with the Women in Technology DC Chapter of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, government and industry cybersecurity thought leaders joined me on stage for an engaging conversation on various aspects of cybersecurity in government. Our panel discussion was followed by an Azure Security Center demonstration by Yujin Hong from Microsoft. To ...
Real-time Data Streaming with Event Hubs on Azure Government
Azure Event Hubs is a managed Data streaming and Event Ingestion platform, capable of processing millions of events per second. Event Hubs can process and store events, data, or telemetry produced by distributed software and devices. Data sent to an event hub can be transformed and stored by using any real-time analytics provider or batching/storage adapters. In the Event Hubs screencast we walk through the Event Hubs sample running on Azure Government. We first demonstrate how to deploy an Event Hub Namespace and Event Hub in the Azure Portal. Now that we have the Event Hub deployed, we want to send messages ...
Adopting Emerging Tech in Government
As blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality continue to create buzz throughout the tech industry, government agencies are exploring ways to apply emerging tech to empower their workforce and deliver innovative services to the public. Key to moving forward is the ability for agencies to define emerging tech use cases and get started with piloting new ideas. Roadblocks can include limitations with budget and the skills required to deploy these technologies. Hear from innovators at the leading edge of emerging tech in government at the next Microsoft Azure Government DC meet...
Get mission ready with deep technical training
Join us for deep technical training - free in Washington. D.C.! We’re excited to announce Microsoft Ignite | The Tour | Government a free technical training event for developers, tech professionals, and mission leaders, is coming to Washington, D.C. on February 4 – 5, 2019. Our top engineers are hitting the road to bring you two days of deep dive sessions, hands-on skill-building, and networking opportunities. Don’t wait – secure your spot today. Our Washington, D.C. tour stop will cover the latest advancements in Microsoft Cloud for Government—which includes Azure Government, Microsoft 365 Government, ...
Cloud-based capabilities help public safety agencies keep communities safe
From call to case closure, public safety agencies depend on flexible and secure digital solutions. It’s why we’re pleased to announce Motorola Solutions has selected Microsoft Azure Government as the cloud provider for its public safety software suite. One of the most comprehensive in the industry, Motorola Solutions’ software suite helps agencies keep communities safe by working smarter and more efficiently. With security and flexibility at its core, Azure Government will enable agencies to meet their unique operating requirements by running hybrid architectures to maximize current on-premises investments while...
Join us for the Azure Government Innovation Tour – first stop Sacramento!
Join us in Sacramento on December 6, 2018 to learn to develop and deploy mission critical applications in Azure Government. At this free, code-first event for government-focused developers, IT Pros, and mission leaders, you'll learn the latest on how to be more productive with Azure. Steve Michelotti and Yujin Hong of the Azure Government Engineering team will demo serverless compute, data services, AI, machine learning, containers, and share numerous tips and tricks. You and your team will walk away with first-hand knowledge of how to effectively leverage Microsoft Azure Government for your most important wor...
Reducing risk and driving quality in the aerospace supply chain
With one of the most complex and distributed supply chains in the world, aerospace and defense manufacturers need to demonstrate compliance with numerous regulations including AS9100, ITAR, EAR, and FedRAMP. Inside their supply chain, this requires compiling data on each manufactured component from an enormous number of subcontractors and suppliers of those subcontractors. For example, the parts required for an aircraft fuselage assembled by a subcontractor may come from 480 different suppliers, along with 2000 additional suppliers of those suppliers. The aircraft manufacturer aims to identify any issues with ...
Meetup replay: Cloud DemoPalooza – Gov Style
Last month, we challenged the Azure Government user community to share 15-minute demos to showcase cool tech to help accelerate your cloud implementations. During our September meetup, Cloud DemoPalooza – Gov Style, we heard from Snowflake, General Dynamics IT, CGI Federal and Microsoft on everything from data warehouse-as-a-service to tech that will support your migration to the cloud. If you’re curious to learn more about these demos, check out the Meetup replay videos below or on the Microsoft Azure Government Meetup Channel (and, be sure to subscribe to our channel for the latest videos!). Thank you to ...
Bringing more cybersecurity capabilities to Azure Government
Protecting information systems and critical infrastructure from cyberattack and reducing the nation’s overall cybersecurity risk are key mandates that cross every level of local, state and federal government. In support of this effort, we’re pleased to announce a new partnership with Cybraics, a security analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) company, to bring new artificial intelligence (AI)- and analytics-based services to Microsoft Azure Government customers. Using AI to uncover and eliminate threats With the partnership, Azure Government customers will now have access to Cybraics’ leading AI-bas...
Serverless computing on Azure Government with Functions
Azure Functions is a solution for easily running small pieces of code, or "functions," in the cloud. You can write just the code you need for the problem at hand, without worrying about a whole application or the infrastructure to run it. You can easily connect to data sources such as Azure Storage or Cosmos DB and integrate triggers and bindings, allowing your defined functions to process and react to events. Azure Functions is scale-based and on-demand, so you pay only for the resources you consume. In this blog we will introduce a Functions sample running on Azure Government, utilizing the magic of serverless ...
From active duty to a career supporting the mission-critical cloud
For Jacob Wrigley, working with technology has always been a passion. It started with designing and building with Legos as a kid. Later, that passion took the form of writing code and building his own computer programs. But tech was never a full-time job. Instead, Wrigley served for six-and-a-half years in the Army infantry where he rose quickly through the ranks to a supervisory role. Before that, he’d spent five years in retail, three of them in management. All that time, technology remained Wrigley’s “tinkerer hobby.” That is, until he found the Microsoft Software & Systems Academy (MSSA) program an...
Utilizing PaaS services and ARM deployment templates on Azure Government
There are many Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings available in Azure Government that you can easily leverage to build compelling applications. It is extremely easy to get up and running with PaaS services, and PaaS services offer a quicker path to compliance. Other than some different endpoints, developing with PaaS services in Azure Government is virtually identical to the developer experience in Azure public. In this post, we’ll cover the Azure Government PaaS sample application. We will walk through setting up a simple CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) web application that interacts with a Cosmos DB, Red...
New capabilities to enable your mission end to end
As we continue to focus on helping government customers secure their mission end to end, we’d like to share a set of new Azure capabilities to help US government customers deliver breakthrough outcomes. For in-depth coverage of these announcements and more, read Julia White’s blog ‘Enabling intelligent cloud and intelligent edge solutions for government.’ Update on Azure Government Secret regions Last October, we announced Azure Government Secret and the expansion of our mission-critical cloud with new regions enabled for Secret U.S. classified data or Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Impact Level 6 wo...
ServiceNow Digital Workflows coming to Azure Government customers
Microsoft and ServiceNow announced an alliance today to help deliver ServiceNow digital workflows to Azure Government customers; paving the way to secure modernization and helping to accelerate digital transformation. We announced this alliance at our Government Leaders Cloud Forum in Washington, DC. ServiceNow is changing the way government agencies work by expediting and simplifying the delivery of modern IT services. By automating routine activities, tasks and processes at work, ServiceNow helps agencies gain efficiencies and increase the productivity of their workforce. “Federal agencies are increasingly fo...
Join us: Women Leading Government Cybersecurity – Oct. 24 in Washington, DC
In support of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a special edition Microsoft Azure Government Meetup, Women Leading Government Cybersecurity, Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 6 – 8:30 p.m., at 1776 in Washington, DC. All are welcome to this free event, which is in partnership with the Women in Technology DC Chapter of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners. We’re bringing an exciting panel of cyber professionals to share insight and discuss: We’ll wrap up the evening with a security demo al...
U.S. Air Force awards $30M+ Enterprise IT-as-a-Service contract to Microsoft
Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, Oct. 4, 2018 The U.S. Air Force has awarded a transformational $30+M agreement to Microsoft to provide secure network access to DoD data and applications as well as enable access for mobile and remotely located users. Microsoft has a longstanding 30-year partnership with the DoD and this other transaction agreement (OTA) with the U.S. Air Force enables experimentation towards transformation to network-as-a-service for IT operations, including support to the department’s mission-critical workloads. The U.S. Air Force’s mission is to fly, fight and win in air, space and cyberspace....
Secure Development on Azure Government – Part 2
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Paul Fisher (Modern App Solution Center, Microsoft) and Joseph Bloom (Business Productivity, Microsoft) about how to set up a secure development environment on Azure Government. In this Part 2 (of the 2-part series), Paul and Joseph focus on setting up a secure CI/CD build environment, utilizing the secure development environment that was previously set up in Part 1 of this series. Paul shows how to set up these build servers in the secure environment to run automated unit tests and integration tests, as well as deploy to docker ...
Announcing Azure Security Center availability for Azure Government customers
As government agencies confront increased cyber threats, there is mounting pressure to build stronger defenses for their data, networks, and IT infrastructure. Today, we are announcing that Microsoft Azure Security Center is generally available and ready to help Azure Government customers with their cybersecurity challenges. With Azure Security Center, Azure Government customers get unified security management and advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud workloads. What’s more, they get the assurance of continuous monitoring of their machines, adaptive threat protections to reduce exposure, and advanced an...
Secure development on Azure Government – Part 1
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Joseph Bloom (Business Productivity, Microsoft) and Paul Fisher (Modern App Solution Center, Microsoft) to discuss how to set up a secure development environment on Azure Government. In this Part 1 (of the 2-part series), Joseph and Paul focus on securing the Azure environment by setting up a secure connection between the on-premises network and Azure Government with VPN and/or ExpressRoute. Joseph specifically shows how to set up a network in Azure that facilitates a developer establishing a VPN connection from their workstation...
Meetup replay: Future of Gov Security – Automated ATOs, Revamped TIC & Beyond
I recently had the opportunity to host a dynamic discussion among leading IT security and compliance experts at our latest Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup, Future of Gov Security – Automated ATOs, Revamped TIC and Beyond, at 1776 in Crystal City, Virginia. With government accelerating its IT modernization efforts, the focus on strengthening security remains top of mind for agencies as they work to realize the benefits of cloud and increase their agility. This was highly evident as our speakers and more than 80 members of the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community explored a range of perspectives on ...
Service Health on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Sami Kubba of Azure Customer Service Engineering about Service Health on Azure Government. The discussion begins with a definition of what Azure Service Health is, including the basics of how customers can increase visibility into their services and resources in Azure Government. In this demo-heavy video, Sami starts by setting up custom dashboards in the Azure Government portal to monitor resources by region or service. Sami shows how flexible the Service Health capabilities in Azure Government are, including the ability to set up ...
Join us back in DC on Sept 26 for Cloud DemoPalooza – Gov Style
We challenged our Azure Government DC user community to share 15-minute demos to showcase cool tech to help accelerate your cloud implementation. Get an inside scoop on what's moving the needle in government technology today. Please come prepared for engaging Q&A as we encourage interactive demos and dialogue. Check out our demo rock stars already lined up: Be sure to RSVP and join us for our Azure Gov DC Meetup on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 6 – 8:30 p.m., at 1776 in Washington, DC, for a great learning experience to hear about the latest and greatest cloud technology solutions for government. Me...
Azure preparedness for hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence: Please refer to the Azure blog post about Azure Preparedness, available at aka.ms/Florence.
Cosmos DB on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Rafat Sarosh, Program Manager on the Cosmos DB team, about Cosmos DB on Azure Government. Rafat and Steve begin with a discussion of the benefits of Cosmos DB including geo-redundancy, scaling throughput and storage, and low latency SLA-backed performance. Rafat then talks about the multi-model nature of Cosmos DB which enables NoSQL document store, key-value, column-family, and even graph capabilities. Rafat and Steve also talk about Cosmos DB Always On capabilities and how geo-redundancy works through the Azure Government data ...
New! Azure Starter Packs now available
Today, we're announcing a set of Microsoft Azure and Azure Government Starter Packs for GSA IT Schedule 70 to jumpstart your cloud efforts. Designed to get you up and running quickly with common cloud workloads, starter packs can especially be useful at the end of the fiscal year as you plan your work ahead. Each starter pack includes essential services, support, and personalized technical guidance. Azure Starter Packs The following scenarios are available today. Key benefits In addition to speed to cloud, Azure Starter Packs offer: Learn more about Azure St...
Solving one of the most common VDI challenges: complexity
Today we’re sharing a guest post by Jose Arvelo, Workplace & Managed Services Practice Manager at Accelera Solutions. He is responsible for leading Accelera’s end user computing and managed services team, focused on helping customers transform their workplace with virtualization, mobility, and cloud solutions. After 16 years deploying virtual applications and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), one of the things that we at Accelera Solutions learned is that VDI is a huge paradigm shift for our customers. It transforms the way that employees work, the way the desktop is managed, and the way the desktop is d...
How to configure TLS versions in App Service and Functions apps in Azure Government
TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols provide privacy and data integrity for establishing secured connections between applications. Over the period of time TLS has evolved and new versions have continued to fix vulnerabilities in older versions and also add newer capabilities. As Azure Government customers continue to optimize security of their cloud based applications and solutions, a simple setting available for App Services and Functions apps make it easy to configure Minimum TLS Version supported by the app. Not supporting older versions of TLS may be needed for security reasons and this feature makes it e...
RSVP and join us for our Aug. 29 Meetup: Future of Gov Security – Automated ATOs, Revamped TIC & Beyond
The President’s Management Agenda (PMA) is calling on agencies to accelerate their IT modernization efforts with a continued focus on security. At this month’s meetup, we will discuss how agencies can navigate ATOs and TIC compliance, so they can realize the benefits of the cloud and achieve greater agility while strengthening their security posture. To take a closer look and gain insight on how government and industry are working together to drive innovation, we invite you to RSVP and join us for the Microsoft Azure Government Meetup, “Future of Gov Security – Automated ATOs, Revamped TIC & Beyond,” on We...
OpenShift on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down with Jamie Duncan, a Cloud Solutions Architect from Red Hat, to talk about OpenShift on Azure Government. OpenShift is an Enterprise grade application platform for containers with Kubernetes. The discussion begins with Jamie outlining some of the benefits that OpenShift can bring to a CI/CD pipeline, as well as the value that OpenShift can bring to enable the mission more efficiently. Jamie then shows a demo of migrating a legacy Java application, with a CI/CD Jenkins pipeline, to Azure Government utilizing OpenShift in a “lift an...
Meetup recap: IT governance for cloud – gov best practices
IT governance is top of mind for many CIOs and the lack thereof is slowing down digital transformation. Watch the latest Azure Gov DC Meetup, IT Governance for Cloud – Gov Best Practices, for insights and strategies needed for an effective cloud migration. Highlights include: Check out the presentations on the Azure Gov DC Meetup YouTube channel’s IT Governance for Cloud – Gov Best Practices playlist or view them individually: For more information on IT governance for cloud, here are some additional resources: • Governance in Azure • Managing and connecting to your subscription i...
Announcing Azure Stack for Azure Government customers to enable IT modernization and tactical edge scenarios
This post was contributed by Natalia Mackevicius, Program Director, Azure Stack at Microsoft. Today, we’re announcing that Microsoft Azure Stack is now available to order for Azure Government customers. It was just a few months ago we shared our plans to integrate Azure Stack with our government-only cloud offering so agencies can benefit from a truly consistent hybrid cloud approach across identity, subscription, registration, billing, backup and disaster recovery solutions, and the Azure Marketplace. Taking this product news a step further, we’ve also successfully completed a rigorous third party assessment a...
How to use containers for data science on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Phil Coachman, Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft, about data science with containers on Azure Government. Azure Government has many tools that enable you to build Machine Learning models including HDInsight with Spark Clusters and Jupyter notebooks, ML Server, and the Data Science Virtual Machine. But what do you do once your model is built? How do you operationalize it? Containers to the rescue! Containers enable you to package your model and deploy it to any location include the cloud and at the edge. This discussion betw...
Bots in Azure Government
This blog was contributed by guest author Russ Williams, Cloud Solution Architect So you've heard the buzz about bots and "conversational AI" at Microsoft's Build 2018 Conference. You're starting to get excited about ideas you have for bots in your organization. But then you learn that Azure Government doesn't support the Azure Bot Service yet, so you start to think your ideas will have to be put on hold… or do they? Turns out, there is a way to begin exploring bots in Azure Government that's really easy! The approach does require that you have access to both Azure Commercial and Azure Government subsc...
CIS Hardened Images now available in Azure Government
Overview of CIS Hardened Images As more government workloads shift from on-premises to cloud-based environments, virtual images (sometimes called virtual machines images) are gaining momentum as a cost-effective option for projects with limited resources to purchase, store, and maintain hardware. A virtual image is a template of an operating system (OS) or application environment installed on software that imitates dedicated hardware. When using virtual images, many government customers still need to demonstrate compliance with the DOD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide, and may look to images that hav...
Nasuni supports Azure Government for more scalable file storage and improved cross-office collaboration
This blog is a guest post by Tom Rose, vice president, Product Marketing, Nasuni - Microsoft Azure Global ISV of the Year. Nasuni's cloud file services platform is backed by Azure object storage and helps government agencies store, archive, protect, synchronize, and collaborate on fast-growing unstructured data at scale. This article outlines best practices for government agencies faced with the challenges of storing, sharing, and protecting rapidly growing file data, and explains how the Nasuni global file system with Azure Government storage works for agencies needing to consolidate outdated NAS and file ser...
Trusted Internet Connection guidance for Azure IaaS and PaaS solutions
This post was contributed by Susie Adams, Chief Technology Officer Microsoft Federal, and Diego Lapiduz, Chief Information Security Architect - Azure Government at Microsoft. Many government customers that are working to optimize security in the cloud have asked for guidance on how to align with the policies set by the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative. A common myth is that this is possible for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) but not for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. To help agencies be as efficient as possible in their transition to the cloud, we recently published new Trusted Interne...
Announcing the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Arizona region
We are excited to announce the launch of Azure M-series Virtual Machines in the USGov Virginia region. Azure M-series VMs offer memory from 192 GB up to 4 TB on a single VM with configurations from 8 to 128 hyper-threaded vCPUs, powered by Intel® Xeon® 2.5 GHz E7-8890 v3 processors. The Azure M-series is perfectly suited for your in-memory workloads like SAP HANA and SQL Hekaton. With the M-series, these databases can load large datasets into memory and utilize the fast memory access with huge amounts of vCPU parallel processing to speed up queries and enable real-time analytics. M-series VMs are SAP certified ...
Machine Learning on Azure Government with HDInsight
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down to talk with Yujin Hong, Program Manager on the Azure Government Engineering team, about Machine Learning on Azure Government with HDInsight. There are endless applications of Artificial intelligence in the Government space, from predictive analytics to object recognition. Steve and Yujin discuss the various AI offerings such as the Data Science VM and ML Server, then do a deep dive into Azure HDInsight. The HDInsight service deploys and provisions Apache Hadoop clusters into the Azure Cloud, providing a software framework designe...
Azure Government Marketplace expanding with new Pay-As-You-Go offers
As part of our rapidly growing solution marketplace for Azure Government, we’d like to announce several new Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) marketplace offers. These new offers enable our government customers to purchase marketplace solutions directly through Azure Government, streamlining the procurement process. In addition, our partners can use this new capability to provide expanded solution offerings and a streamlined procurement process to government customers. For example, see the below hardened images from the Center for Information Security, which are preconfigured to meet internationally recognized secure config...
Join the Azure Gov DC Meetup July 25: IT Governance for Cloud – Gov Best Practices
One of the biggest concerns slowing down government digital transformation is the lack of effective IT governance. Unresolved concerns including privacy, security and organizational silos limiting data sharing and analysis continue to pose challenges for agencies. To discuss ways to overcome these challenges, we invite you to RSVP and join us for the Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup, IT Governance for Cloud - Gov Best Practices, on Wednesday, July 25 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 Crystal City, Virginia.* During this Meetup you’ll hear from industry-leading experts who will share insights and strategies on ac...
New services and Azure Government marketplace partners
This summer we’re continuing to bring new services into Azure Government to support the innovation happening in the public sector. We would like to announce the following new services, with more coming soon: Azure Media Services is now generally available in Azure Government. Media Services makes it easy to use high-definition video encoding and streaming services to reach your audiences on today’s most popular devices. Media Services also enables you to extract richer metadata and improve accessibility, distribution, and scalability —all while protecting your content Media Services is based on REST APIs that...
Azure Security Center Preview now available in Azure Government
While cyber threats affect every organization and every individual, governments face unique challenges. The recent Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Infrastructure represents a key example of the growing pressure on government agencies to increase their efforts around protecting highly sensitive data and systems. To help our customers address their security challenges, we are announcing the preview of Azure Security Center for Azure Government. Security Center delivers unified security management for hybrid cloud workloads, with continuous monitoring as well as security...
Azure Gov DC Meetup recap: How Cloud Can Drive #GovInnovation + Solution Showcase
“Cloud is not a migration, it’s a transformation,” stated Kevin Jackson, advance technology & business strategy expert and founder/author of the award-winning blog, Cloud Musings, at a recent Azure Gov DC Meetup, How Cloud Can Drive #GovInnovation + Solution Showcase, at 1776 in Washington, DC. Jackson was one of four presenters who shared their experience, best practices, demos, and customer use cases with the Microsoft Azure Gov DC user community on successfully transitioning to the cloud. Featured speakers also included: Brett Goldsmith and Jim Mullennnix of AIS who discussed moving a high-profile appl...
Join us 6/20: How Cloud Can Drive #GovInnovation + Solution Showcase
With the President's Management Agenda focus on IT modernization to drive more effective government and citizen services, agencies are on the hook more than ever to rapidly innovate and deliver. Cloud – with its agility, speed and low cost – is the key enabler to help agencies test and innovate new solutions faster than before. Oftentimes, however, agencies think of cloud as just technology and software when instead they should see cloud as their organization's business strategy to create greater impact for employees and citizens. In this exciting era of rapid gov innovation, we invite you to join the Microso...
#AzureGovMeetup recap – Harnessing cloud: how to accelerate your mission apps
Miss last month’s Meetup on, Harnessing Cloud: How to Accelerate Your Mission Apps? No problem! Check out the videos from the May 23 event on the Microsoft Azure Government Meetup YouTube Channel. And, be sure to subscribe to ensure you’re up to date on the latest videos. Industry expert Vishwas Lele, CTO of AIS, discussed a PaaS-first approach to mission apps, and Microsoft Azure Government’s Chief Information Security Architect Diego Lapiduz focused on Securing DevOps with Azure. The presentations can be found on YouTube in the Harnessing Cloud: How to Accelerate Your Mission Apps playlist or viewed individ...
Harness real-time data for smarter cities, buildings, and transportation
This article was co-authored by Christy Szoke, CoFounder/CMO of Fathym, and the Azure Gov Team Wherever you live, you’re probably all too aware that inclement weather can have a serious impact on citizen safety and city budgets. And until recently, municipalities affected by changing road and weather conditions didn’t have easy access to the data they needed to respond proactively. Now, thanks to recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), communities can make faster, more informed decisions based on hyper-local road weather data, improving road safety and operational efficiency. In Fairbanks, ...
Fast Deduplication with NetBackup CloudCatalyst for the Azure Government Cloud
Got Back Up? Anyone who has a basement or even a closet in their home, knows the sometimes painful necessity of clearing out space and managing storage. Government agencies embarking on digital transformation can also feel the pain of runaway costs due to storage accumulation for backups. With Veritas NetBackup 8.1 in Azure Government Marketplace, get the benefits of CloudCatalyst for de-duplicating your cloud storage, for efficient space management in Azure Government Trusted cloud! Our guest blogger today from Veritas, goes deeper with tips for backing up your files to Azure Government, while managing costs....
Enabling Central IT to become a Cloud broker
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Scott Gruenmeier (Cloud Solution Architect, State and Local Government practice, Microsoft) about enabling Central IT to become a cloud broker. Scott starts out with some background on traditional State and Local Government IT and then move into highlighting new cloud based opportunities, like true disaster recovery, business continuity, enhanced security and scalability, for Central ITs. We look at the difference between a capital expenditure spending model and an operational expenditure spending model and discuss how Sta...
Microsoft + GitHub = Empowering Developers
Yesterday, we announced an agreement to acquire GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform. Developers are at center of solving the world’s most pressing challenges. The era of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge is upon us. Computing is becoming embedded in the world, with every part of our daily life and work and every aspect of our society and economy being transformed by digital technology. Developers are the builders of this new era, writing the world’s code. And GitHub is their home. That is why we’re so excited about today’s announcement. More than 28 million developers already coll...
Modernize Citizen Services with AvePoint
Advancements in technology can challenge government agencies to meet rising citizen expectations. At the same time, they provide an opportunity for agencies to modernize operations, becoming more responsive, transparent, and efficient. AvePoint, who won the 2017 Microsoft Partner of the Year award for Public Sector: Microsoft CityNext, offers AvePoint Citizen Services, a solution designed to help governments facilitate non-emergency citizen services, automate case management and incident reporting. The solution has three core capabilities: 1. Enabling citizens to quickly report everything from potholes to broke...
Announcing general availability of Azure API Management in Microsoft Azure Government
We are pleased to announce that Azure API Management is now generally available in Microsoft Azure Government. API Management is a turnkey, full-lifecycle solution for publishing APIs to external and internal consumers. Customers use API Management to quickly create consistent and modern API gateways for existing back-end services hosted anywhere. API Management helps you secure and protect APIs and provides insights into API usage and health. API Management is critical for organizations who are working to: • Embrace digital transformation and achieve efficiency and agility by using APIs internally and externa...
Strengthening cybersecurity for the DoD – accelerating compliance
Agencies such as the DoD can improve their threat detection and response times by using cloud-based security capabilities and cloud intelligence through Microsoft Azure Government. By shifting responsibilities to Azure, the DoD can get more security coverage, which enables them to reallocate security resources and budget to other agency priorities. Azure Government was the first hyperscale commercial cloud service to receive a Level 5 DoD Provisional Authorization by the Defense Information Systems Agency. How can Azure Government help the DoD? Learn more about all the advanced Azure services...
Custom Speech Service for Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Vishwas Lele (CTO of Applied Information Sciences) about Custom Speech for the government. They start out with some Custom Speech history and then move into highlighting key changes in this space such as cloud enabled computing power for large dataset vocabulary size. Following the initial discussion, Vishwas explains what Custom Speech Services (CSS) is and provides government specific examples and scenarios that highlight Custom Speech uses and benefits. Lastly, watch a demo that takes you through a complete CSS Workflow - upload,...
Build recap: Azure innovations announced for government
At the recent Build 2018 developer conference, Microsoft shared the breadth of innovation coming to Azure--across Azure Stack, data and analytics solutions, IoT and more. Government customers can continue to count on this rapid pace of commercial innovation coming to Azure Government over time, as services becoming generally available, throughout the year. Azure Stack unlocks hybrid cloud scenarios for government customers In disconnected scenarios when you can’t bring your data to the cloud, Azure Stack extends the Azure application platform and brings the power of Azure cloud services to your data, enabling t...
Microsoft Azure Government at AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore
Join the Microsoft Azure Government team at the upcoming AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium, May 15 – 17, in Baltimore, Maryland. Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure CTO and distinguished author will deliver a keynote on Thursday, May 17 at 10:45 a.m. in Hall E of the Baltimore Convention Center. Mark will shed some light on the importance of Machine Learning for cloud defense. We invite you to register here and stop by booth 478 to speak with us and learn more about Microsoft Azure Government, Cognitive Services, HoloLens, and more. We look forward to seeing you in Baltimore! Learn more about Azure G...
Join us May 23: Harnessing cloud – how to accelerate your mission apps
IT modernization is top of mind for government. While most agencies are leading with cloud for their new applications, many struggle to realize the full value of modernization by moving the majority of their enterprise apps to the cloud and creating new citizen services. And, now, with the latest orders from the White House, there is an even greater sense of urgency to overcome barriers and accelerate ways to boost cloud adoption and overhaul government IT systems to drive agility, cost savings, innovation and mission delivery. Given these exciting opportunities, we invite you to RSVP and join us for the Mic...
Citrix Cloud coming soon to Azure Government
As we participate in Citrix Synergy today, we’re excited to announce that Citrix Cloud is coming to Azure Government! Specifically, this means that the management plane for Citrix Cloud XenApp and XenDesktop service will soon be available on Azure Government, enabling customers to use these innovative services to provide secure remote access to employees with the world-class security and broad compliance coverage of Microsoft’s government-only cloud. XenApp and XenDesktop provide a complete virtual app and desktop solution to meet all of your organization’s needs. With these capabilities you can go beyond virtu...
How to use GPUs by NVIDIA on Azure Government for Virtual Machines and AI
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Anthony Robbins (Vice President, Public Sector, NVIDIA) about the background of GPUs and NVIDIA’s involvement in expanding GPU usage. Then, dive into key scenarios and use cases applicable to government customers, before learning about GPU capabilities available in Azure Government, including the recently announced NV-Series virtual machines. Lastly, watch a demo on how to provision a GPU enabled VM and learn about the different options to get started with GPUs on Azure Government. Customers interested in the Microsoft-NVIDIA proof ...
Predict and manage Azure Government costs using Resource Usage and RateCard APIs
Government agencies need to be able to get detailed granular consumption data and derive insights to effectively manage their cloud consumption. The Resource Usage and RateCard APIs provide Azure Government customer access to their Azure consumption and pricing details: To get started with this APIs leverage the billing API code samples on Github and adapt them to use the Azure Government endpoints. Keep in mind that these APIs only support Pay-as-you-go and Trial offers. If you are a CSP customer or EA customer, you can still benefit from these APIs by using the Pay-as-you-go offer code ID when calling ...
Strengthening cybersecurity for the DoD – reducing risk
Defense department senior leaders have directed DoD to adopt cloud computing to support the warfighter, a direction that will help build a stronger foundation of cybersecurity. The partnership with a dedicated, certified cloud provider can be pivotal. But given the breadth of these solutions, where should the DoD turn? In the new defense context of cyber warfare, it’s critical to have a cloud that ensures robust security and peace of mind. A cloud that can be wherever adversaries are—domestic or aboard. The Microsoft approach to cybersecurity has helped agencies like the DoD to advance missions with a trusted,...
A hybrid approach for the Department of Defense
Today, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is taking significant steps to modernize existing systems, opening the door for the use of emerging technologies to increase speed and agility. Accelerating adoption of cloud technologies is critical to the DoD’s ability to maintain the long-term strategic advantage of US military forces. However, the DoD still has extensive mission-critical assets in on-premises datacenters, commercial cloud service offerings, and contractor-owned facilities spanning multiple classification levels. A hybrid approach, where on-premises and cloud resources function together, will enabl...
Application Security Groups now generally available in Azure Government
We are pleased to announce general availability of Application Security Groups (ASG) in all Azure regions including Azure Government. This feature provides security micro-segmentation for your virtual networks in Azure. The detailed announcement can be viewed here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/applicationsecuritygroups/ ASGs provide many security and manageability benefits such as: Network security micro segmentation ASGs enable you to define fine-grained network security policies based on workloads, centralized on applications instead of explicit IP addresses. Security definition simplified ...
How to use Azure Monitor for Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government videos series, we explore Azure Monitor on Azure Government. What is Azure Monitor? What are its main features and capabilities? What sources are relevant? We answers all these questions and more in this demo-heavy session focused on giving you everything you need to know to get started quickly with Azure Monitor. We cover custom dashboards and visualization, custom alerts, custom metrics, custom queries with Log Analytics and how Azure Monitor on Azure Government enables you to incorporate all of these features into your agency’s mission. How to use Azure Monitor for...
Announcing new GPUs in Azure Government with NV-Series
We’re excited to announce that NV-Series virtual machines are now generally available in US Gov Virginia. NV-Series is designed to support visualization scenarios which enables customers to use NVIDIA® Tesla® M60 GPUs and NVIDIA® GRID in Azure for desktop accelerated applications and virtual desktops. With these powerful visualization GPUs in Azure Government, customers can visualize graphic-intensive workflows to get superior graphics capability and run single precision workloads such as encoding and rendering. Customers can also take advantage of this new capability through existing Azure Government desktop as ...
Announcing the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Virginia region
We are excited to announce the launch of Azure M-series Virtual Machines in the USGov Virginia region. Azure M-series VMs offer memory up to 4 TB on a single VM with configurations of 64 or 128 hyper-threaded vCPUs, powered by Intel® Xeon® 2.5 GHz E7-8890 v3 processors. We’re also excited to announce that Azure is the first hyperscale cloud provider to offer VMs with up to 4TB optimized for large in-memory database workloads in a sovereign cloud. The Azure M-series is perfectly suited for your large in-memory workloads like SAP HANA and SQL Hekaton. With the M-series, these databases can load large datasets into...
Register for webinar on 4/19: Deploying Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop in Azure
Are you interesting in learning best practices for deploying Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop in Azure? Check out our first webinar on this topic from February and register below for part two of this series on April 19th at 06:00 AM PT (9:00 AM ET) and 11:00 AM PT (2:00 PM ET). Jeff Mitchell, Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect, and Kevin Nardone, Citrix Enterprise Architect, will share more tips and guidance around how to get started with Citrix in Azure. Topics will range from Resource Group design recommendations, and requirements, to recommended VM sizes based on the use case. This webinar will cover: ...
How to run containers with Kubernetes on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Gerardo Saca about running containers with Kubernetes on Azure Government. The discussion starts off with the basics: what are containers and how are they useful? Then Gerardo goes into more depth about Orchestrators and why they are important. After the brief opening discussion, this session is demos throughout. Gerardo shows provisioning a Kubernetes cluster on Azure Government using the ACS Engine. He then shows how easy it is to deploy containers to Kubernetes and manage the cluster. If you’re someone who wants to know more abou...
Join us April 25: Intersection of AI and Analytics in Government
Many believe AI will advance government; changing the speed, reliability, and ability for agencies to make more informed decisions and better deliver on their missions. Integral to leveraging the power of AI is data which floods many agencies yet is often underutilized or even locked up due to lack of resources, knowledge of tools, and compliance. Fortunately, cloud-based analytics capabilities allow these datasets to be turned into knowledge that can empower agencies to take advantage of AI capabilities that can help agencies make more informed decisions, drive efficiency and become more citizen friendly. Wi...
App Service Environment is now available in Azure Government
The App Service Environment, with Isolated pricing plans, is now available in Azure Government. The App Service Environment is a deployment of the Azure App Service and runs in your Azure Virtual Network. With an App Service Environment you have more options for: The App Service Environment can be deployed with an internet accessible endpoint or with an endpoint on a private address in your Azure Virtual Network. This makes the App Service Environment a great solution to host your line of business applications or those applications that you want to only expose through a web application firewall such...
Optimizing defense systems with Advanced services
The proliferation of data from devices and sensors creates both challenges and opportunities for US armed forces. Today, data comes from both manned and unmanned platforms—ranging from form factors like the sophisticated instrumentation on a modern aircraft to the wearable gear. The challenge in handling all this data lies in ensuring the intelligence delivered can be readily acted on with a high degree of confidence. Assisting defense with advanced services Defense agencies require agility to rapidly handle asymmetric threats in dynamic environments around the world. Military systems and devices deliver ter...
Announcing Azure DevTest Labs in Azure Government
Today, we're excited to announce the availability of Azure DevTest Labs in Azure Government. Azure DevTest Labs is a self-service sandbox environment in Azure that enables you to quickly create dev/test environments while minimizing waste and controlling costs. Developers and testers need to spend considerable time configuring their self-service environments. Decision makers want to leverage the cloud to improve the efficiency of their developers while managing costs and minimizing process overhead. With Azure DevTest Labs, you – the lab creator – select the settings for lab use, security, compliance, and gover...
ExpressRoute monitoring with Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is now generally available in Azure Government
This blog was contributed by: Abhave Sharma, Program Manager, R&D Networking IDC We are pleased to announce the availability of ExpressRoute monitoring with Network Performance Monitor (NPM) in Azure Government Cloud-Virginia. Check out what the new capability can do for you below: Overview You can now monitor end-to-end connectivity and performance between your branch offices and Azure, over Azure ExpressRoute. Key advantages are: Getting Started To start using ExpressRoute Monitor in NPM, you will need to install (software) agents on each side of the ExpressRoute circuit (i.e....
Azure Advisor in Preview in Azure Government
Azure Advisor is now in preview in Azure Government. Advisor is a free offering that helps you to follow best practices to optimize your Azure deployments. It analyzes your resource configuration and usage telemetry to recommend solutions that can help you improve the cost effectiveness, performance, and high availability of your Azure resources. You can view your recommendations by going to Azure Advisor in the Azure Government portal. To open Advisor, locate Advisor in the navigation menu or search for it in the All services menu. With Advisor you can get actionable recommendations for: Addi...
Mobile Apps Powered by Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down with Eric Egland and Andrew Ditmer of the Microsoft Global Black Belt team to discuss building mobile apps on Azure Government. Have you ever wanted to get a mobile app up and running quickly but figured it would take way too much time and effort? Eric and Andrew demystify that notion by showing the Office Locator app which is an end-to-end quick start that can get you up and running quickly. Eric discusses the benefits of Xamarin for building native mobile apps, and Azure for powering backend services. Andrew shows the technolog...
Power BI Premium and Power BI Embedded available for Azure Government
Power BI Embedded and BI Premium are now generally available for Microsoft Azure Government, extending existing Power BI capabilities to support U.S. government agencies and their partners in advancing the mission.
New eBook on strengthening cybersecurity for the DoD
The rapid evolution of technology and the exploitation of data, machine intelligence, and on-demand computing power is changing the requirements of cybersecurity. Fortunately, the tools available to the DoD are changing, too.
Azure Government AAD Authority Endpoint Update
We are continuing our efforts to provide a differentiated US Government platform and have updated our Identity architecture to bring additional capabilities inside the Azure Government infrastructure boundary. Part of this, as shared in our Azure Government endpoint mappings, is changing the Azure Active Directory (AAD) Authority for Azure Government from https://login-us.microsoftonline.com to https://login.microsoftonline.us. Many may have noticed this change when accessing https://portal.azure.us, https://account.windowsazure.us, or through a variety of cloud services already updated to leverage the new author...
The Azure Government Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) program keeps growing
Since we launched Azure Government in the Cloud Solution Provider Program (CSP) we have been working with Partners across our ecosystem to bring them the great benefits of this channel, enable them to re-sell Azure Government, and help them grow their business while providing the cloud services their customers need. For the latest list of approved CSPs, visit our Azure Government authorized reseller list. If you would like to learn more about the Cloud Solution Provider Program and answers to Commonly asked questions, you can do so here. If you would like to apply to the program, you can find information on the...
Dynatrace Managed Instance now available for Azure Government
As teams across government agencies are hard at work modernizing their IT portfolios, it's helpful to have the best tools for optimizing application performance in the cloud. Built with AI technology, Dynatrace provides full stack, all-in-one monitoring and operations analytics for the public sector at massive scale, in the largest government environments. Dynatrace utilizes artificial intelligence to understand the complexities of performance in hyper-dynamic cloud environment, and it's now available for Azure Government. “The availability of Dynatrace for Azure Government addresses the growing demand for appli...
Azure Functions portal experience now available in Azure Government
Creating and managing your Azure Functions in Azure Government just got easier with the availability of the Azure Functions portal experience. The rich portal experience allows you to create, manage and monitor your functions. You can develop using C#, F# or JavaScript and integrate with a wide variety of services using triggers and bindings. To create an Azure Function in the portal, click on + Create a resource and search for Function App. All your functions, both new and previously created, are available through All Services > App Services for you to manage. As always, you can continue to pic...
Aerospace and defense leader L3 Technologies selects Azure Government to accelerate innovation
Today we are pleased to announce that L3 Technologies, a leading provider of a broad range of communication, electronic and sensor systems and products used on military, homeland security and commercial platforms, has chosen Microsoft Azure Government as its primary cloud platform for expanding data analytics capabilities, optimizing IT operations, and delivering greater value to customers.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure Government Now Consumes EA Monetary Commitment
Red Hat Enterprise Linux now consumes EA Monetary Commitment Azure Marketplace third-party reseller services now use Azure monetary commitment We are expanding the use of Azure Monetary Commitment! As of March 1, 2018, the third-party reseller services available on the Azure Marketplace—and listed below—consume Enterprise Agreement (EA) monetary commitment. Previously these services were billed outside of EA monetary commitment and were invoiced separately. EA monetary commitment for these services in the Marketplace helps simplify customer purchase and payment management. The following services are included: ...
Expanding Azure Government Marketplace – March 2018
Sarah Weldon, Azure Government Azure Government Marketplace ecosystem continues to grow! Since December 2017, over 80 new offers went live in Azure Government. We highlight a few including new publishers below: CentOS 7.4 – Rogue Wave Software (formerly OpenLogic) Data Flow Instance Powered by Apache Nifi – Onyx Point, Inc. Dynatrace Managed for Government - Dynatrace Flashgrid Node for Oracle RAC (based on OL 7.4) – FlashGrid Inc. Flashgrid Node, RHEL 7 based – FlashGrid Inc. Hanu Insight – Enterprise - Hanu Software Jenkins (US Gov) – Microsoft Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance - Qualys, Inc Redhat OpenShi...
How to get started with Azure Government
This blog was contributed by Stuart McKee, Chief Technology Officer, US State and Local Government, Microsoft Corporation Many government agencies would like to take their first steps toward adopting cloud services. With so many options available, it’s hard to know where to start, and the idea of modernizing everything can be daunting. In most cases, taking a planned approach means greater success overall. Adopting cloud technology can mean a lot of things, from extending services to your current environment, to fully hosted applications, and everywhere in between. How do agencies take that first step? Many s...
Cloud DemoPalooza – Azure Gov Style (On Demand)
We challenged our Azure Government DC user community to share 12-minute demos at last month's Meetup, Cloud DemoPalooza – Azure Gov Style, to showcase cool tech to help accelerate your cloud implementation. If you weren’t able to join us in person, we invite you to replay the demos on the Microsoft Azure Government Meetup YouTube Channel. And, be sure to subscribe, too! Featured demos can be found on YouTube in the Cloud DemoPalooza – Azure Gov Style playlist or viewed individually here: Segment 1: Welcome & Introductions – Karina Homme, Senior Director, Microsoft Azure Government and Microsoft MVP Vis...
New and improved Azure Log Analytics is now available in Azure Government
New and improved Azure Log Analytics is now available in Azure Government. This is biggest upgrade to Log Analytics since its launch and includes new features for powerful search, smart analytics, and even deeper insights. This upgrade provides an interactive query language and an advanced analytics portal, powered by a highly scalable data store for consistent monitoring experience. Key features- How to upgrade?- Simple, no user action is required. All existing Log Analytics workspaces are automatically upgraded to new experience, and new workspaces will start with new experience. Learn more a...
Accelerated Networking for both Windows and Linux is now generally available in Azure Government
We are happy to announce that Accelerated Networking (AN) for both Windows and Linux is now generally available in Azure Government. Accelerated networking provides consistent ultra-low network latency via Azure's in-house programmable hardware and technologies such as SR-IOV. By moving much of Azure's software-defined networking stack off the CPUs and into FPGA-based SmartNICs, compute cycles are reclaimed by end user applications, putting less load on the virtual machine (VM), decreasing jitter and inconsistency in latency. Information needed to deploy a VM with accelerated networking can be found here: Windo...
Join us March 21: Intersection of AI and Analytics in Government
Many believe AI will advance government; changing the speed, reliability, and ability for agencies to make more informed decisions and better deliver on their missions. Integral to leveraging the power of AI is data which floods many agencies yet is often underutilized or even locked up due to lack of resources, knowledge of tools, and compliance. Fortunately, cloud-based analytics capabilities allow these datasets to be turned into knowledge that can empower agencies to take advantage of AI capabilities that can help agencies make more informed decisions, drive efficiency and become more citizen friendly. Wi...
Bringing cloud innovation to US state and local government
A primary challenge for US state and local government agencies is to drive IT innovation while maintaining regulatory compliance. As citizens expectations rise, agencies must work to modernize infrastructure while keeping costs contained. Many agencies are moving to the cloud to achieve both mandates. As they make this move, they need to assess and manage a whole new aspect of regulatory compliance, which varies depending on whether the agency is choosing Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS) for a particular workload Microsoft Azure Government is bu...
Announcing Microsoft Jenkins Solution Template for Azure Government Cloud
Since the launch of Microsoft Jenkins offer in Azure Marketplace in mid-2017, it’s exciting to see the growing number of customers using our solution template to run Jenkins on Azure. Jenkins is a popular open source CI/CD server. With our solution template, you can stand a Jenkins master running on a Linux (Ubuntu 16.05 LTS) VM up on Azure in as fast as 20 minutes. Today, we are happy to announce that you can deploy the solution template to Azure Government cloud. Some quick facts if you are not familiar with the solution template: Hint: to upgrade (and you should always keep Jenkins serve...
Accelerating cloud capabilities for Government customers
At the Microsoft Government Tech Summit in Washington D.C. today, we are pleased to share a host of new capabilities for Azure Government customers as we take the next step forward in meeting the mission-critical needs of our U.S. Government customers. Below you will find full detail on some of our key announcements. For a summary of the Tech Summit news, see the announcement from Tom Keane, Head of Global Infrastructure, Microsoft Azure: Two new Azure Government Secret regions coming soon! Further expanding our support for government workloads across a broad spectrum of data classifications, we’re excited to...
Announcing Azure Stack integration with Azure Government
This blog was contributed by Natalia Mackevicius, Director, Azure Stack Since the launch of Microsoft Azure Stack, we have been excited to see how customers and partners are unlocking new possibilities with hybrid cloud environments. At the same time, we have been working hard on incorporating customer feedback into the product roadmap. Today, we are excited to share with you some updates. In mid-2018, Azure Stack will integrate with the Azure Government cloud, enabling connections to Azure Government identity, subscription, registration, billing, backup/DR, and Azure Marketplace. Azure has always be...
Run remote applications anytime anywhere with Frame for Azure Government
Today, at the Microsoft Government Tech Summit, we announced that Frame is available in Azure Government. Frame enables our customers to deploy a secure Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) capability without the high cost of on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI); and Frame Government Edition enhances that capability with the ability to deploy to the government cloud with the leading number of security accreditations – Microsoft Azure Government. Frame customers will just need a web browser to utilize graphics intensive applications hosted in Azure Government and backed by our NV series virtual machines. An ex...
Modernize your government agency with the latest in Azure and Microsoft 365
We hope to see you at Microsoft Government Tech Summit in Washington, D.C. on March 5–6, 2018! It will be two incredible days of technical learning, networking, and hands-on skill-building, led by the experts behind Microsoft’s cloud services. Who should attend? This exclusive learning event is targeted at ITI, ITDM, IT professionals, and developers. You have access to exclusive trainings and other engagements offered only to Government Tech Summit attendees along with peer-to-peer networking opportunities for our valued customers and partners! Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the latest product updates and...
Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud – Gov Edition (Recap)
Many government agencies often find that they are stuck, unprepared and seeking ways to help them transition to the cloud. To learn how others tackle this challenge, more than 90 members of the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community recently participated in a “Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud - Gov Edition” Meetup featuring government and industry experts sharing best practices, resources and use cases at 1776 in Washington, DC. For those who could not join our Meetup in person or via livestream, you can watch the presentations on-demand by visiting the Microsoft Azure Government Meetup YouTube Channel. An...
VNet Service Endpoints for Azure SQL Database now generally available in Azure Government
The Azure Networking team has announced the general availability of Virtual Network (VNet) Service Endpoints for Azure SQL Database in all Azure regions, including Azure Government. The announcement can be seen here: VNet Service Endpoints for Azure SQL Database now generally available VNet Service Endpoints for Azure SQL Database allow customers to isolate connectivity to their logical server from only a select subnet or subnets within their VNet. This enhances both security and performance by extending your VNet private IP space and identity directly to Azure SQL Database without leaving the Azure Government d...
Announcing Azure US Government regions on Azure Status page
We are happy to announcement that Azure US Government regions are now listed on Azure Status page. Microsoft Azure Government customers can now visit the page to view the availability status of various services and also get the latest status on any ongoing service interruption incidents. Status information on the page is near real time and users can configure refresh rate between every 2 and 30 mins with RSS feed support. Users can also configure personalized dashboards and alerts on the Azure Portal using the Service Health blade. This provides targeted alerts to show when service events directly impact your ...
Networking features recently made generally available in Azure Government
The Azure Government team continually strives to bring the latest Azure platform features to Azure Government. In this post I highlight networking features that have recently been made generally available in Azure Government. Network Watcher Network Watcher is a regional service that enables you to monitor and diagnose conditions at a network scenario level in, to, and from Azure. Network diagnostic and visualization tools available with Network Watcher help you understand, diagnose, and gain insights to your network in Azure. Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage Virtual Network ...
Resources for building your Government CSP practice
Partners interested in reselling Azure Government can become an authorized Cloud Solution Provider for Government (Government CSP). To learn more, check out the Government CSP application process. If you’re already a Government CSP and want to know how to create your first customer or even explore high level security and role-based access control, you can find some helpful videos here: These overview videos will help you get up and running. We’d love to hear your feedback and are always working to improve your experience with Azure Government. We welcome you to reach out to our team at Azure Go...
Join us Feb 28: Cloud DemoPalooza – Azure Gov Style
We challenged our Azure Government DC user community to share 12-minute demos for this month's Meetup, Cloud DemoPalooza – Azure Gov Style, to showcase cool tech to help accelerate your cloud implementation. Be sure to RSVP and join us for our Azure Gov DC Meetup on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 6 – 8:30 p.m., at 1776 in Washington, DC, to get an inside scoop on what's moving the needle in government technology today. Please come prepared for engaging Q&A as we encourage interactive demos and dialogue. We received tremendous response to our DemoPalooza. Check out the demo rockstars already lined up: Patric...
Why cloud for state and local government?
With rapid technological advances, cities can now transform into smart cities with enhanced and interactive citizen services, better living, and increased economic growth. You can learn more about these opportunities by watching our on-demand webinar, The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud for State and Local Governments. Despite the many benefits, government agencies can find it difficult to gain support for a transition to modern technologies. In the past, evolving existing systems or creating new experiences was costly and relied on stretching an already-pressured budget. State and local government agencies now ...
Improve security and performance with Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage
Last week we announced general availability for Virtual Network (VNet) Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage in all Azure public cloud and Azure Government regions. The announcement can be seen here: Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage now generally available Azure Storage Firewalls and Virtual Networks use Virtual Network Service Endpoints to allow administrators to create network rules that allow traffic only from selected VNets and subnets, creating a secure network boundary for their data. This enhances both security and performance by extending your VNet private IP ...
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...
New course: How to leverage the power of cloud for government
Government needs the agility to respond to almost any situation. While cloud can enable this agility, many cloud models aren’t designed with government in mind, and don’t adhere to strict government security and regulation standards. To provide insight into how government cloud solutions help agencies realize the benefits of cloud while remaining security compliant, we recently launched a self-paced, 30-minute GovLoop Academy course, “How to leverage the power of cloud for Government.” In six lessons, this interactive online course examines the unique cloud needs of the public sector. It also explains how Mic...
Announcing preview of new high performance computing capability: H-Series VMs
Late last year, we announced that H-Series virtual machines were coming to Azure Government to support high performance computing (HPC) workloads. I'm excited to announce that H-Series VMs are now in preview in US Gov Arizona . Customers can leverage this new capability for any unclassified workload including ITAR and FedRAMP High. These VMs support complex scientific and engineering workloads whether its modeling the next military aircraft or doing molecular level modeling to understand diseases. The addition of H-Series adds to the existing HPC capabilities on Azure Government which includes: H-Seri...
Join us Jan. 31! Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud – Gov Edition
As we enter the New Year, many government agencies continue to resolve to take advantage of cloud computing. However, oftentimes, agencies find that they are stuck, unprepared and seeking ways to help them transition to the cloud. With these challenges in mind we are kicking off 2018 with a can't-miss Meetup, Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud - Gov Edition, on Wednesday, Jan. 31 starting at 6 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC. Be sure to RSVP and join us for this month's Meetup featuring a speaker lineup of cloud experts who will help you figure out where to begin and what valuable resources are available. You will...
Trends in Government Software Developers
A few months ago, StackOverflow published their findings on Trends in Government Software Developers. StackOverflow is the #1 source for software developers to find answers on the Internet and has been the leader in this space for years. Because StackOverflow is one of the most highly trafficked sites on the Internet, they have at their disposable vast amounts of data on developers throughout the world. An analysis of StackOverflow’s trends in government software developers shows that Microsoft Azure Government is the perfect place for government developers to be. Azure Government provides all the technologies c...
Optimize Uptime While Staying Secure
With the recent announcement of the industry-wide, hardware-based CPU vulnerability, organizations must ensure they have appropriately updated their infrastructure to secure their environment. Microsoft Azure Government customer environments were patched prior to the public announcement. Additionally, Microsoft publicly announced the patching procedures this week. If you are an Azure Government customer, you have peace of mind knowing that Microsoft is proactively securing your infrastructure with minimal to no time investment of your own. However, the question often gets asked: Will I experience downtime while ...
VDI with Citrix on Azure Government
In this episode of the Microsoft Azure Government video series, Steve Downs, senior program manager, Microsoft Azure Government, sits down with Jose Padin, sales engineering director, US Public Sector, Citrix to discuss Citrix's Secure Digital Workspace capabilities available in Azure Government. During this video, VDI with Citrix on Azure Government, Steve and Jose share insights and answer a host of questions including: Joe also wraps up with a demonstration of Citrix's capabilities on Azure Government. Watch the VDI with Citrix on Azure Government video on Channel 9 now.
Announcing the availability of DoD regions via Government CSP Program for Azure Government
We are excited to announce that partners can now re-sell Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 5 Azure Government regions to their customers through the Cloud Solution Provider Program (CSP). We’re committed to expanding partner opportunities to bring cloud innovation to their defense customers, and the availability of the DoD regions through CSP is an important step. The DoD regions for Azure Government are available through the Azure Government management portal, making it simple for customers and partners to access these regions when required to meet defense mission requirements. DoD-approved customers will...
VDI with Frame on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Downs sits down with Dave Reber from Frame to discuss the Frame platform for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Frame is a Microsoft VDI partner focused providing a great user experience for remote applications hosted in Azure Government. Dave shares a bit about Frame’s history and covers a few of the use cases Frame helps its customers solve. How does Frame’s browser-based admin model simplify administration while also delivering an exceptional user experience? What is a secure browser and how easy is it to deploy with Frame? Plus, Dave demonstrates ...
How to optimize your cloud strategy
In recent years, U.S. government agencies have moved to the cloud faster than private corporations in an attempt to replace aging systems and improve organizational efficiency.[1] Cloud adoption can transform how IT departments at federal civilian agencies operate, deliver services, and share information. To maximize the value and impact of their cloud migration, however, CIOs must help their agencies achieve a certain level of cloud maturity – and the path to maturity begins with a solid and sustainable strategy. Recently, the International Data Corporation (IDC) published its Cloud Adoption in Federal Civili...
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...
Team Foundation Server in Azure Government
Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is a great platform for orchestrating your DevOps. It makes it easy to mix and match the tools you like to use for your CI/CD environment while providing a hosted platform for tying it all together. However, the Software as a Service (SaaS) version of VSTS is not always the right choice. Specifically, an organization may want to keep their DevOps server private or the organization may be deployed in the Microsoft Azure Government cloud where VSTS is not yet available. In that scenario it makes sense to deploy Team Foundation Server (TFS). A typical TFS deployment includes the T...
Unlock data insights to drive agency mission
Now more than ever, federal CIOs can leverage business intelligence (BI) and advanced analytics to simplify data management, unlock valuable insights, and use these insights to improve operations across their agencies. Advanced analytics allows CIOs to connect available data to their agency’s larger mission. Sophisticated tools and techniques enable CIOs to simultaneously extend the capabilities and influence of their departments, and make strategic, data-driven recommendations to other leaders regarding government initiatives. And with open access to data and analysis, employees across all departments – incl...
Azure Government Technical Community
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Gerardo Saca of the Azure Government Engineering team about the Azure Government technical community. Are you a developer or IT Pro that considers yourself a part of the Azure Government technical community? If not, why not? Steve and Saca talk about numerous ways you can get involved in the Azure Government community. Where can you go to get your questions answered about what services are available in Azure Government and what is coming up? What if you have a technical question you want to ask, or you want to get further technical ...
Join us Nov. 29! Gov Cloud Migration Strategies & Creating a Culture of Change
While cloud is becoming the new normal for government, agencies are still challenged with the daunting task of IT modernization and developing a cohesive cloud migration strategy. Oftentimes, what’s holding back progress is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all cloud playbook. That, combined with agency culture, hinders many agencies from making their move to cloud. Please RSVP and join the Azure Government DC user community Wednesday, Nov. 29, 6 – 8:30 p.m., for a Meetup on Gov Cloud Migration Strategies & Creating a Culture of Change featuring government and industry experts who will share best practices ...
Creating a Secure Space for IoT in Government
IoT is multi-dimensional and flexible in the way it can improve agency function and bring nuanced approaches to citizen services, all while existing on a secure platform. With IoT, you are connecting to a vast web of devices such as street cameras, monitoring tools, and a wide array of other “things.” This also presents a unique obstacle when it comes to security. Every time a new device is added to the network, a new vulnerability is potentially introduced. IDC’s recent report, How Government Organizations Are Looking at IoT, outlines consideration for CIOs when choosing an IoT software and service provider....
Identity in Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Bernie Ellis from the Azure Government Engineering team about Identity on Azure Government. Bernie starts out by talking about the three different Identity models and the things you need to know for each of the scenarios. Bernie also discusses available protocols in Azure Active Directory for Azure Government. Steve and Bernie also discuss in-depth the scenarios around authenticating an app running on Azure Government across different scenarios including AAD for Office 365. If you’ve been having questions on Identity on Azure Gover...
Is Mission Driving Your Cloud Strategy?
In working with federal agencies, we’re seeing a new level of maturity in terms of the ability to use the cloud to dramatically impact mission, achieving much more than just cost savings. For example, the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs Access to Care allows Veterans, caregivers and the public to access wait time and quality of care measures across the health care industry. This tool is designed with transparency in mind – taking highly complex data and making it easily available to Veterans and the public. To accelerate your agency’s ability to use the cloud to drive innovation and agility for your mis...
Building Real World Solution on Azure Government with Machine Learning
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti sits down to talk with Vishwas Lele, CTO, Applied Information Sciences, about building real world solutions on Azure Government with Machine Learning. Vishwas describes a solution built for a classified customer in which machine learning is used to provide recommendations on relevant news articles for analysts. The machine learning functionality of the solution was provided by Microsoft Machine Learning Server (formerly known as Microsoft R Server) which is directly callable from C# code! In addition to the machine learning aspects, the soluti...
Benefits of Blockchain for Government Agencies
Kevin Leffew is a Solution Specialist for Microsoft for US SLG with a specialization in Blockchain and the Modern Workplace. You can find him writing about all things related to blockchain, distributed systems, and digital identity on his blog (https://medium.com/@kleffew) and on Twitter @kleffew94 In today's rapidly modernizing economy, the digital transformation of government organizations is absolutely key for improving efficiency and sustaining the overall health of each agency. At Microsoft, we view digital transformation strategy as the core driver in improvements to productivity, efficiency, and coll...
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...
Announcing new Azure Government capabilities for classified mission-critical workloads
Microsoft is partnering with the U.S. Government in the journey to the cloud, providing both infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS) offerings to enable digital transformation. Our government customers are responsible for the most sensitive data and the most critical applications in the country. We're continuously expanding our support for highly-classified workloads, delivering advanced technologies like Blockchain and support for High Performance Computing, and increasing our available security capabilities with Azure Security Center. In addition, were launching Citrix VDI on Azure Government to help our gov...
Win10 Enterprise Now Available on Azure Government!
We are excited to announce that Windows 10 can be deployed from Azure Government Marketplace. You can now run Windows 10 to run Dev/Test scenarios or with your Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution, all in your Azure Government Subscription. To get started, select Windows10 in the Portal to deploy, and click create, follow the steps in the opened blade. Win10 Client is a Pro image out of the box, but you can upgrade it to Enterprise through the steps below. Customers activate the Enterprise version to unlock Windows Enterprise features for use with VDI. Requirements for Enterprise activation: Cu...
Department of Justice Issues a FedRAMP High ATO for Azure Government
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Justice Management Division (JMD) has issued two FedRAMP High ATOs for Azure Government. The DOJ performs critical services for U.S. Citizens with the mission "[t]o enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." JMD is the principal organizational unit responsible for management...
Deploy VDI in Azure Government
Many of our state, local, and federal customers have asked us to help move their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) users into Azure Government. Windows 10 in the Marketplace, plus Managed Disks, simplifies your ability to deploy VDI solutions within Azure Government and Citrix provides several options to help you deliver user workloads from the cloud. Extend your existing Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop environment into Azure Government Coming soon, you will be able to provision Windows 10 and Server 2016 desktops directly from your on-premises Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop infrastructure into Azure Government. This sc...
Azure Security Center coming to Azure Government
While cyber threats affect every organization and every individual, governments face unique challenges. Today, we are announcing Azure Security Center, which provides unified security management and advanced threat protection for hybrid cloud workloads, will be coming to Azure Government. From simplified management to new ways to block and detect threats, Security Center continues to innovate to help solve today's security challenges. Security Center will help Azure Government customers: Today, we are happy to announce the general availability of new Security & Audit capabilities in Azu...
Data Science Virtual Machines are now available on Azure Government Cloud
This post was co-authored by: Gopi Kumar, Principal Program Manager, AI and Research For any questions, feel free to contact Gopi on Twitter: @zenlytix We are happy to announce the availability of the Data Science Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure Government Cloud. Microsoft's Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM) is a family of popular VM images published on Azure with a broad choice of machine learning, AI and data science tools. All the tools are pre-configured giving you a ready-to-use, on-demand, elastic environment in the cloud to help you perform data analytics and AI development productively. You focu...
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
In support of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, we're kicking off a blog series to share best practices from our experiences with our customers as part of our commitment to enabling U.S. government with a complete, trusted, and secure cloud platform. In today's guest blog, Ann Johnson, Microsoft Vice President, Strategic, Enterprise, & Cybersecurity (SEC), shares some historical context into the challenges of security management, providing insights into how the capabilities of the cloud changes the game for security management. We also invite you to j...
Azure Government Los Angeles Hackfest + Training Recap
We are excited to share that following our first two successful HackFests in Sacramento and DC, we have just completed another successful event in Los Angeles, hosting 72 attendees! There was a lot of buzz in the air as the Microsoft Team set the stage for the HackFest by providing overviews on Big Data, Cognitive Services, Xamarin mobile development, and deploying both Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Of specific note, the attendees showed a great deal of enthusiasm around bot frameworks after being introduced to CHIP, LA's virtual assistant. Big Data and Cognitive Services we...
Join us Oct. 18! The Intersection of Cybersecurity & Digital Transformation for Gov
For government, cybersecurity isn't only a challenge-it can be a roadblock standing in the path of long-awaited digital transformation. Agencies are tasked with balancing the highest security measures with innovation, as today's employees and citizens alike insist that their data be conveniently available anytime, anywhere. RSVP & join us, Wednesday, October 18, 6 - 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC, for this special-edition Azure Gov Meetup on "The Intersection of Cybersecurity & Digital Transformation for Gov." Featured speaker This can't-miss Meetup features Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure ...
Microsoft and the State of Florida moving forward with a CJIS Lead Agency!
City of Miami Police Department has committed to executing the CJIS Personnel Security Requirements for Microsoft Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the State of Florida's CJIS Systems Agency, recently completed an audit of Microsoft controls applicable to the CJIS Security Policy (details here). The audit results are available for all law enforcement agencies in Florida to meet their CJIS regulatory requirements. Another critical requirement of the CJIS Security Policy is the requirement for agencies to adjudicate internal and vendor employees with potential access to Criminal Justice Information (C...
Tableau Server now available in Azure Government Marketplace
Overview Government and its partners depend on business intelligence tools to visualize, analyze, and share data to make more informed decisions. Today we've expanded the portfolio of BI solutions available on Azure with the addition of Tableau Server in Azure Government. Tableau Server is now available in the Azure Government Marketplace, which means you can deploy it in just a few clicks within the strict, exclusive boundaries of Azure Government. Tableau Server enables you to see, understand, and share the data you have in Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Warehouse and Azure HDInsight. G...
Microsoft joins 500+ Law Enforcement professionals in extending commitment to Public Safety!
Oregon and Washington host annual CJIS training conferences From the opening with the local Color Guard presentation of the flags to the assurance from the CJIS Systems Agencies to public safety, and all the sessions in between, the Oregon CJIS Division Annual Training and the Northwest CJIS Users Workshop and Security Summit conferences were another commitment to the law enforcement mission. Over 500 law enforcement professionals gathered at the events to expand their knowledge on Law Enforcement Data Systems (LEDS), National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), National Instant Criminal Background Check S...
Power BI Premium generally available for U.S. government users
With more than 20 compliance offerings, Power BI delivers an end-to-end business intelligence solution while helping organizations comply with national, regional and industry-specific requirements. Today, we are pleased to build on this legacy by announcing Power BI Premium will be generally available for both the U.S. Government Community Cloud (GCC) and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) users beginning Oct. 1. Power BI Premium was made available in June and builds on the existing Power BI portfolio with a capacity-based licensing model that increases flexibility for how users access, share and distribute conte...
Microsoft extends commitment to CJIS compliance with Maine and Vermont!
Adding Maine & Vermont makes 32 states background checking Microsoft employees for CJIS When you are thinking about CJIS and digital transformation across your government and Justice and Public Safety priorities, you should seek a partner committed to compliance and security today and in the future. At Microsoft, we continue to expand our commitment to states contractually committing to the applicable controls in the CJIS Security Policy. Our commitment to the Policy now include the states of Vermont and Maine extending the commitment to 32 states! Microsoft is committed to compliance. Don't settle for anyt...
Use Case: Region to Region Azure Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) provides capabilities to automate protection and replication of virtual machines, providing a true Disaster Recovery as a Service Solution (DRaaS). ASR allows for data replication to multiple geographically dispersed regions, which provides a significant opportunity for cost savings while enhancing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) and COOP capabilities. Region to Region Azure Site Recovery was recently introduced in Azure Government. See the announcement here. Recently, one of my customers enlisted my help to meet regulatory requirements such as NIST 800-53 and ISO 2700...
Announcing General Availability of Managed Disks in Microsoft Azure Government Cloud
We're pleased to announce General Availability of Managed Disks in the Microsoft Azure Government Cloud. Managed Disks are available in USGov Virginia, USGov Texas, USGov Arizona, USDoD Central and USDoD East Azure US Government regions. Azure Managed Disks simplifies disk management for Azure IaaS VMs by managing the storage accounts associated with the VM disks. Azure creates and manages the disk for you and handles storage for you behind the scenes. Managed Disks provides better reliability for Availability Sets by ensuring that the disks of VMs in an Availability Set are sufficiently isolated from each ot...
Region to Region preview is now available in Azure Government
We are excited to announce the preview of disaster recovery for Azure IaaS virtual machines (VMs) using Azure Site Recovery (ASR) in Azure Government. You can now easily replicate and protect IaaS based applications running on Azure to a different Azure Government region of your choice within a geographical cluster without deploying any additional infrastructure components or software appliances in your subscription. This new capability allows you to create a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy for all your IaaS based applications running in Azure Government. As you move production a...
Join us Sept. 27! The Power of Data Analytics to Transform Government
Government agencies across the spectrum are sitting atop invaluable datasets that are locked up because of lack of resources, tools and compliance regimes. Fortunately, cloud-based analytics capabilities are allowing these datasets to be turned into knowledge. Whether it's data about the mission, citizen services or simply data from running large data centers, analytics can help these agencies visualize, analyze and optimize. To hear how, be sure to RSVP and join us for an Azure Government DC Meetup on The Power of Data Analytics to Transform Government, Wednesday, Sept 27, 6 - 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, ...
Azure Active Directory Premium is now in limited preview in Azure Government
We are excited to announce a limited preview of Azure Active Directory Premium in Azure Government! This preview is for customers that have specific compliance needs (e.g., FedRAMP or DoD requirements), and while certifications aren't in place yet, we plan to have them in place for general availability. Getting started To gain access to this limited preview, complete our onboarding survey and someone from our engineering team will connect with you to discuss next steps. Checkout the full announcement for more information and to learn how to sign up for the limited preview!
Checkout Azure Government at Microsoft Ignite! Wednesday, September 27th, 10:45am
Attending Microsoft Ignite in Orlando? Join us at our session where we will show how Azure Government can bring innovation to your agency's mission! U.S. Government and public-sector agencies live under a microscope of demands and expectations. To provide innovative services, they need the agility and speed of cloud, but with an extra level of security and regulatory compliance. Microsoft Azure Government delivers a cloud platform that offers public sector entities and their partners a physically isolated instance of Microsoft Azure with world-class security and compliance services critical to U.S. Government. ...
Identity Guidance for Azure Government Apps Now Available!
Getting identity right is important. On the Azure Government engineering team we receive a lot of questions about how to enable identity in an Azure Government application. We recently released Planning identity for Azure Government applications; which serves as the first of many upcoming articles that cover key scenarios for Azure Government applications. In this article we set the foundation by covering questions such as: Feedback is highly encouraged! Specifically, if you have identity scenarios you'd like us to cover please post a comment or email us at azgovfeedback@microsoft.com. In the meantim...
Network Performance Monitor is now generally available in Azure Government
We are pleased to announce the availability of Network Performance Monitor (NPM) in Azure Government Cloud-Virginia. Check out what NPM can do for you below: Overview Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is a cloud based hybrid network monitoring solution, that monitors connectivity between: Network monitoring for hybrid environments Monitor network connectivity across remote branch & field offices, store locations, data centers and clouds. With NPM, you can detect network issues before your users complain. Key advantages are: Getting Started To start using NPM, you will need to...
Announcing General Availability of Blob Storage (Hot/Cool) in US Gov Virginia
We are happy to announce the generally availability of Blob Storage accounts in US Gov Virginia. The feature is now enabled in three regions including the recently announced US Gov Arizona and US Gov Texas. Blob storage accounts are specialized storage accounts for storing your unstructured data as blobs (objects) in Azure Storage. With Blob Storage accounts, you can choose between hot and cool storage tiers to store your less frequently accessed (cool) data at a lower storage cost, and store more frequently accessed (hot) data at a lower access cost. Customers can take advantage of the cost benefits of the coo...
Azure Government Sacramento HackFest + Training Recap
After the huge success of our first Azure Government HackFest + Training event in Washington, DC, our next HackFest + Training event in Sacramento, CA had a lot to live up to. With over 100+ attendees packed into the California Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento, we are pleased to say that the Sacramento HackFest event surpassed the first DC event! We were so excited to see the enthusiasm of developers and IT pros come that came from agencies all over the state of California. The first day of the event primarily consisted of the training portion with a series of conference-style presentations. Through a combin...
Advance Your Skills: Azure and Azure Government Training Resources
Whether you are a beginner wanting to learn the basics of cloud computing or an experienced developer working with cloud services, there is a plethora of resources available that can help you gain further knowledge and insight on all of the capabilities of Azure and Azure Government. If you have the desire to learn more about cloud computing, check out these training resources: Azure Gov DC User Community Join this community of industry and government professionals interested in sharing bets practices for driving cloud innovation in government. Visit the below sites to join our commun...
Azure Monitor now available in Azure Government
With Azure Monitor, you can now consume monitoring metrics and logs within the portal and via APIs in near real-time and gain more visibility into the state and performance of your resources. Azure Monitor provides you the ability to configure alert rules to get notified or to take automated actions on issues impacting your resources. Azure Monitor enables analytics, troubleshooting, and a unified dashboarding experience within the portal, in addition to enabling a wide range of product integrations via APIs and data export options. All of this has now been enabled for Azure Government. Check out the full announ...
Microsoft has contractually committed to CJIS regulations in 60% of the United States!
Nevada is the 30th state to background check Microsoft employees for CJIS Joining states such as New York, California, Texas and many others, Nevada recently moved forward with a CJIS Information Agreement allowing the Nevada criminal justice community the opportunity to deploy mission critical justice and public safety solutions in Microsoft Government Cloud Services. From the words of Julie Butler, Nevada CJIS Systems Officer "The ability for law enforcement agencies to utilize criminal justice applications leveraging cloud-based solutions is critical for our criminal justice mission." Below is a map of the ...
Microsoft Azure Enables NIST CSF Compliance: Recover Function
Today, as part of our ongoing support of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, I am pleased to announce the final release in a series of documents on enabling compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) through Microsoft Azure services. This release specifically outlines how to implement the Recover function requirements using the services offered by Azure. The Whitepaper is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides". Microsoft is committed to assisting our Federal customers, who must comply with the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Network...
Join us! Microsoft Azure Government HackFest + Training, October 3-4 in Washington, DC
After the great success of our first Azure Government HackFest + Training event in Washington, DC - and our highly anticipated second Azure Government HackFest + Training event in Sacramento, CA - we are now happy to announce our third HackFest event - this time back in Washingon, DC! Register now for this can't-miss opportunity that features one day of training presentations by members of the Microsoft Azure Government Engineering team followed by an all-day HackFest for all experience levels. (yes, ALL are welcome - newcomers to experienced developers - in this friendly and supportive HackFest environment!)...
Join Us: How to Accelerate Connected Citizen Services
Citizens today are more connected that ever before; increasingly expecting anytime, anywhere access to government services and information - via online, mobile and/or social. To continue to best serve and engage ever-connected citizens, government organizations and their industry partners must deliver innovative apps and mobile services that are highly secure and provide a user-friendly experience. With these opportunities in mind, the Azure Government DC user community invites you to RSVP and join us Wednesday, Aug. 30th for "How to Accelerate Connected Citizen Services" at 1776 in Washington DC. You'll hea...
Azure NC Virtual Machines Availability – GPU Compute
Azure NC-based instances are powered by NVIDIA Tesla® K80 GPUs and provide the compute power required to accelerate the most demanding high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads. Customers can now use these instances to run deep learning training jobs, HPC simulations, rendering, real-time data analytics, DNA sequencing, and many more CUDA® accelerated tasks. Additionally, customers have the option to utilize RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) over InfiniBand for scaling jobs across multiple instances. InfiniBand provides close to bare-metal performance even when scaling out to 10s, 100s, or even 1,000s of...
Azure Government ExpressRoute
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with James Walters about Azure Government ExpressRoute. James starts out by explaining what ExpressRoute is and what the primary benefits are for government customers. He also clarifies the difference between ExpressRoute for commercial versus Government and the DoD. Steve and James discuss how and where the data is encrypted over the wire and how customers can optionally add additional security if they choose. James concludes by explaining how government agencies can get started with setting up ExpressRoute and the available options. ...
Meetup Replay: Advancing Digital Government in the Cloud
This guest blog post is written by Vishwas Lele from Applied Information Sciences (AIS). AIS provides software and systems engineering services to government agencies and businesses across the United States. They specialize in cloud services, DevOps, custom application development and IT services. For additional information please visit www.appliedis.com It's no secret that cloud computing is empowering organizations to deliver better government faster. This idea of advancing digital government was indeed the theme of our last Meetup in July 26 Microsoft Azure Gov DC Meetup at 1776 in Washington, DC with more th...
Microsoft Azure Enables NIST CSF Compliance: Respond Function
Today, as part of our ongoing support of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, I am pleased to announce the second release in a series of documents on enabling compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) through Microsoft Azure services. This release specifically outlines how to implement the Respond function requirements using the services offered by Azure. The Whitepaper is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides". We will publish a similar guide for each of the remaining CSF Function areas in the coming weeks. Microsoft is committed to assisting our Federal customers, who must c...
Azure Site Recovery available in DoD and New Azure Government Regions
We are pleased to announce the availability of Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to all Azure government regions in the United States. With this expansion, Azure Site Recovery is now available in all Azure government regions (US DOD Central, US DOD East, US Gov Arizona, US Gov Texas, US Gov Iowa, and US Gov Virginia). Customers can now select any of these regions to deploy ASR with the same reliability and performance levels as set forth in the ASR SLA. Azure Site Recovery reduces the complexity involved in setting up disaster recovery and helps you stay compliant by having a business continuity plan in place to keep ap...
Azure Backup now available in US DoD and Azure Government Regions
Today we are announcing the expansion of Azure Backup to DoD and additional Azure Government regions. This expansion makes Azure Backup available in all Azure Government regions (US DOD Central, US DOD East, US Gov Texas, US Gov Arizona, US Gov Iowa, US Gov Virginia). Azure Backup can backup (or protect) and restore your data in Microsoft cloud. Azure Backup enables Azure IaaS VM backup as well as replace your existing on-premises or off-site backup solution with a cloud-based solution that is reliable, secure, and cost-competitive. Customers in the above listed regions can now use Azure Backup with same reliabi...
Microsoft Azure leads the industry in ISO certifications
We are happy to announce that Microsoft Azure recently completed a new set of independent third-party ISO and Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) audits to expand our certification portfolio. Azure leads the industry with the most comprehensive compliance coverage, enabling customers to meet a wide range of regulatory obligations. If that were not enough, having a program with industry leading depth and coverage specific to ISO is exponentially useful to our customers globally as ISO standards provide baselines for information security management that are relied upon by many other standards across regulated industries ...
Microsoft Azure Enables NIST CSF Compliance: Detect Function
Today, as part of our ongoing support of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, I am pleased to announce the third release in a series of documents on enabling compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) through Microsoft Azure services. This release specifically outlines how to implement the Detect function requirements using the services offered by Azure. The whitepaper is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides." We will publish a similar guide for the remaining CSF Function areas in the coming weeks. Microsoft is committed to assisting our Federal customers, who must comply with...
General availability of Storage Service Encryption and “Secure transfer required”
*Today, we are excited to announce the general availability of Storage Service Encryption for Azure Files Storage, as well as the "Secure transfer required" feature now being supported in the Azure Government Storage account. Storage Service Encryption for Azure File Storage Azure File Storage is a fully managed service providing distributed and cross platform storage. IT organizations can lift and shift on premises file shares to the cloud using Azure Files, by simply pointing the applications to Azure file share path. Thus, agencies can start leveraging cloud without having to incur development costs to adopt c...
Azure Cyber Analytics Program for Power and Utilities Partners
Microsoft is deeply aware of the importance of cybersecurity for companies supporting the electric grid and is committed to helping partners and customers secure their nations' most critical of critical infrastructure. In furtherance of this commitment, we are announcing a cyber program: "Microsoft Azure Certified Elite Partner Program for Cyber Analytics in Power and Utilities". Microsoft has invested deeply in tools, analytics, cyber intelligence, and services for our own Cloud, and we believe it is imperative we engage customers to put these capabilities to work for them as well. While we are beginning this p...
Announcing the Cognitive Services White Glove Program for All Azure Government Customers
Earlier this year we announced the initial release and public preview of Cognitive Services in Azure Government. From talking with you, we understand that building Artificial Intelligence in your application has proved to be a daunting task, but we're now here to help! Azure Government is expanding the Cognitive Services public preview with the launch of Cognitive Services White Glove Program. This program will provide direct assistance from The White Glove Program includes three main stages- Envision, Onboard and Scale. More details of each stage are listed below: Each custome...
Join us: Advancing Digital Government in the Cloud — July 26
It's no secret that cloud computing empowers organizations to deliver better government. While cloud adoption is still in early stages, how to take advantage of new technologies is at the forefront of every government IT department. Hear from government and industry IT leaders who are paving the way to advance digital government at the Microsoft Azure Gov DC Meetup, Wednesday, July 26, at 1776 in Washington, DC. Please check out our agenda and RSVP to join us for this content-packed and interactive Meetup featuring forward-thinking IT leaders who will present: 82 Days: How SBA Went from Cloud Launch to ATO i...
Florida finalizes CJIS Technical Audit on Microsoft Government Cloud Services
The audit is to ensure compliance with the FBI Criminal Justice Services Security Policy At Microsoft, we consider compliance a commitment, not a checkbox. As part of that commitment, we seek opportunities to collaborate with the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) regulators and our customers on our approach to compliance, our commitment to Justice and Public Safety and how we design and operate our Government Cloud Services. Equally as important is Microsoft's commitment to transparency in detailing the applicable controls are in place to meet (or exceed) the requirements outlined in the 13 Areas o...
What does it take to migrate to Azure Government?
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti talks with Scott Gruenemeier about what it takes to migrate to Azure Government. Scott draws upon his vast experience working directly with customers to clearly articulate the most important steps for getting started with your cloud migration. Steve and Scott discuss the types of workloads that are best suited to start your cloud journey as well as many of the most useful services available on Azure Government today. Scott also touches on several aspects of resiliency in the cloud and shares his thoughts as to why Digital Transformation is ine...
Azure Media Analytics Now Available on Azure Government
We are pleased to announce the General Availability of Azure Media Analytics on Azure Government. Azure Media Analytics is built on top of Azure Media Services, and provides a host of extremely compelling features that enable a wide range of government scenarios. Examples of just some of the scenarios that Azure Media Analytics enables are: Azure Media Analytics technology leverages a collection of powerful processors for specific areas of functionality. These processors can be used either by themselves, or in conjunction with other processors to create custom workflows for your mission's vid...
Microsoft Azure Enables NIST CSF Compliance: Protect Function
Today, as part of our ongoing support of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, I am pleased to announce the second release in a series of documents on enabling compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) through Microsoft Azure services. This release specifically outlines how to implement the Protect function requirements using the services offered by Azure. Protections outlined include the CSF categories for access control, data protection, and maintenance. The Whitepaper is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides". We will publish a similar guide for each of the remaining CSF Fu...
New Operations Management Suite Solutions Available
Since Operations Management Suite (OMS) GA'd in Azure Government in October 2016, we've added features and solutions that continue to improve your experience. Key capabilities added since GA include The team remains committed to enabling all features and solutions that are generally available in OMS for Azure Government as quickly as possible. See documentation for a list of OMS for Azure Government variations from Azure Commercial. Many OMS solutions are still in Preview in Azure Commercial, and we will update you as we deliver new features. The following solutions are available today in...
Microsoft Azure Government Now Available from Six US Datacenter Regions
I am pleased to announce that Azure Government is commercially live in two additional datacenter regions in Arizona and Texas for U.S. government customers and their partners following my announcement late last year. With these expansions, Azure Government has capacity in proximity to government customers and partners on the East Coast, West Coast and Central United States. With a total of six U.S. datacenter regions, including two dedicated regions with DoD Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization (PA), Azure Government continues to deliver the most customer choice in the U.S. for locating government workload...
Announcing the Azure Government HackFest + Training Event – August 22-23 in Sacramento, CA
Join us! Microsoft Azure Government HackFest + Training, August 22-23 in Sacramento, CA After the great success of our first Azure Government HackFest + Training event in Washington, DC - we are now happy to announce our second HackFest event – this time in Sacramento, CA! Register now for this can't-miss opportunity that features one day of training presentations by members of the Microsoft Azure Government Engineering team followed by an all-day HackFest for all experience levels (yes, ALL are welcome - newcomers to experienced developers - in this friendly and supportive HackFest environment!). Each team...
Azure Gov June Meetup Replay: IoT Strategies in Government
For those who could not join us at the June Azure Gov DC Meetup, we are pleased to bring you the replay of IoT Strategies in Government. The first segment kicks off with Azure Government updates then features Mike Baker, cloud solution architect, Azure Team, Microsoft Federal, who provides insights on tools and technologies that enable you to connect, monitor and manage billions of IoT assets with Azure IoT. In the second segment, Chris Cyrus, vice president, Docker Public Sector, and Andrew Weiss, lead sales engineer, Docker Public Sector, give a presentation on how Docker is helping to drive the movement ...
Compliance on Azure Government
In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Zach Kramer talks with Matt Rathbun (CISO, Azure Government) about compliance in Azure Government. Matt and Zach discuss the various compliance regimes offered by Azure Government including FedRAMP High and Moderate, DISA Level 4 and 5 for DoD workloads, CJIS for federal law enforcement data, and more. They also cover the wide array of Azure Government services currently available today that are covered by these compliance certifications. Learn how Azure Blueprint can streamline the certification process for the compliance of your solution. Matt also shares hi...
Microsoft Azure Enables NIST CSF Compliance: Identify Function
Today, as part of our ongoing support of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, I am pleased to announce the first in a series of documents on enabling compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) through Microsoft Azure services. This first release specifically outlines how to implement the Identify function requirements using the services offered by Azure. The Whitepaper is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides". We will publish a similar guide for each of the remaining CSF Function areas in the coming weeks. Microsoft is committed to assisting our Federal customers, who must com...
Criminal Justice Information Services – What’s new in v5.6 and being considered for v5.7
Microsoft helping agencies prepare for regulatory revisions As part of Microsoft's commitment to meet the applicable requirements of the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy, it is critical to prepare in advance for future requirements as well. With law enforcement deploying innovative solutions for camera technology, biometrics, jail/court/offender management, investigation and evidence solutions with cloud solutions, the CJIS Security and Access (S&A) subcommittee shared important information at the recent CJIS Advisory Policy Board (ABP) meeting. CJIS Audits in 2016 Mr. Brad Trui...
Hear how contractors can drive IoT innovation in government – July 11 in Washington, DC
Gartner projects that 21 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. With the U.S. government market for the Internet of Things (IoT) beginning to take shape, we invite government contractors register to join Washington Technology and Microsoft to a free event, "How Contractors Can Drive IoT Innovation in Government," Tuesday, July 11, from 3:30 - 6:30 p.m., at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC. Across government, agencies are exploring how they can harness the countless networked devices already embedded in their operations to gain new insights into their existing services - and to create ...
Announcing Microsoft Azure Government services in the Cloud Solution Provider program
We are excited to announce that Azure Government services are now available through the Cloud Solution Provider program (CSP). The CSP program enables partners to make Microsoft Cloud services part of their customer offerings, expanding U.S. government customer options in meeting their mission goals. With the CSP program, partners can now create high-value service offerings that combine use of Azure Government with solution management, customer support, and billing to U.S. government customers. The security, privacy, compliance and transparency of the Azure Government platform give U.S. government partners the ri...
Microsoft Partners with Federal Tax Administrators at Annual Conference
Microsoft hosts Commissioners, Top Deputies, and Legal Staff at Redmond Campus The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) Annual Conference was host to over 250 Policy leaders such as economists, top deputies, commissioners, budget directors and legal staff assembling to discuss state and federal tax policy. A foundation for regulatory policy is the requirement for a secure environment to protect citizen's personal information. Augmenting the critical policy discussion at the FTA Annual Conference, Microsoft hosted over 30 of the attendees at Microsoft's Cyber Security Operations Center. Below is the attendees gett...
Getting Beyond Lift-and-Shift on Azure Government Video – Part 2
Management wants you to move to the cloud. But if you simply lift-and-shift, you are missing out on tremendous opportunities to increase scalability and optimize resources, while also decreasing time and costs. In this episode of the Azure Government video series, Steve Michelotti and Zach Kramer talk about the benefits of moving to PaaS. The discussion is a follow-up to the Getting Beyond Lift and Shift presentation from the Washington, DC Tech Summit. Steve and Zach discuss many aspects of PaaS, including compliance benefits and the implications of the recent Presidential Executive Order on Cybersecurity. Th...
Join us June 28! Azure Gov DC Meetup: IoT Strategies for Government
The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) enables exciting capabilities to enhance agencies' missions but also brings many challenges including security and strategies for integrating this evolving technology. Please RSVP to join us for an evening of demos, use cases and best practices on how agencies can quickly and securely deploy IoT in the cloud at the next Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup, Iot Strategies for Government, on Wed., June 28, from 6 - 8:30 p.m., at 1776 in Washington, DC. We are excited to feature speakers from Docker Public Sector - Chris Cyrus, vice president, and Andrew Weiss, ...
Evaluating Risk with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Risk Assessment Checklist
Microsoft is pleased to announce the availability of our Risk Assessment Checklist for the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) for Federal Agencies. The Checklist is available on the Service Trust Portal under "Compliance Guides". Microsoft worked with our Azure Blueprint Partner, First Information Technology Services (FITS), to develop a streamlined guide for evaluating Federal information systems against the requirements of the CSF. The CSF checklist was initially developed by FITS for the financial industry, in response to SEC guidelines, and is used today by financial investors to determine the cybersecurit...
Microsoft Expands Data Offerings for Government with General Availability of Azure IoT Hub on Azure Government
We're excited to announce today that Microsoft has made IoT Hub available in Azure Government, the most secure and compliant cloud platform for U.S. government to run mission workloads. Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing industries such as utilities and retail, and now U.S. government customers and their partners will be able to more quickly and easily deliver IoT solutions that dramatically change the ways they can achieve their missions. With IoT Hub now generally available on Azure Government, U.S. government customers will be able to establish secure bi-directional communications between IoT devi...
Azure Government HackFest + Training Recap
Our first Azure Government HackFest + Training event is in the books and it was a great event! We were thrilled to see so many enthusiastic developers and IT Pros in Azure Government interested in learning new things and getting even more hands-on with Azure Government. The first day of the event was marked by several in-depth presentations by members of the Azure Government Engineering team. Speakers included: The second day of the event was dedicated to our hands-on HackFest. Participants were divided into eight teams and given a series of challenges they could c...
Microsoft’s Commitment to Strengthening Cybersecurity
Microsoft is first and foremost a cybersecurity company. Governments, restricted industries, and millions of individuals depend on the security of our products every day. And with our cloud services, we have taken our commitment to security and compliance to the next level. For insight into how Microsoft handles security company-wide and how we are working to shape the future of cloud security, please check out our story: Securing the Cloud. Microsoft is further committed to assisting our Federal customers, who must comply with the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Netw...
Microsoft Signs CJIS Security Addendum with New Jersey
Microsoft has now contractually committed to CJIS requirements in 29 states. Meeting the applicable regulatory controls of the CJIS Security Policy is a long-term commitment for Microsoft. We don't consider it a checkbox, it is a commitment. As part of this commitment, Microsoft recently signed the CJIS Security Addendum with New Jersey. This brings the total states adjudicating Microsoft employees to 29. State residency and national fingerprint-based record checks are required for all personnel who have direct access to Government Cloud services with Criminal Justice Information (CJI) as defined in 5.12.1 of t...
Azure Gov May Meetup Replay: Managing the Changing Hybrid Cloud Environment in Gov
For those who could not join us at the May Azure Gov DC Meetup, we are pleased to bring you the replay of "Managing the Changing Hybrid Cloud Environment in Gov." The first segment kicks off with Azure Government updates then features Brian Harrison, cloud solution architect, Microsoft, who presents Microsoft Azure's suite of services, Operational Management Suite (OMS), which helps you manage and maintain your IaaS. The discussion covers Backup; Site Recovery; Automation; and Monitoring/Log Analytics. Brian also provides a demo on Insights and Analytics. In the second segment, Harin Sandhoo, Cloud Architec...
5 stories from #msbuild that inspired me – and hopefully you – as a developer
This guest blog post is written by Vishwas Lele from Applied Information Sciences (AIS). AIS provides software and systems engineering services to government agencies and businesses across the United States. They specialize in cloud services, DevOps, custom application development and IT services. For additional information please visit www.appliedis.com I recently attended BUILD 2017. As always, there were several announcements about exciting new and upcoming releases, discussions about growth in adoption and how customers across the world are leveraging technology in creative ways. Much of this news was well...
Red Hat releases partner Azure Blueprint for OpenShift on Azure Government
As government agencies increasingly look to adopt of DevOps, cloud computing, and Linux containers, building the underlying infrastructure on a trusted and secure foundation is critical. Today Red Hat, in collaboration with Microsoft, released a partner Azure Blueprint for deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on Microsoft Azure Government. The Azure Blueprint for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform provides a template for customers looking to more quickly and easily deploy Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on Microsoft Azure Government. Using the FedRAMP-provided System Security Plan template for M...
VM Images update: February – May
We are pleased to share with you the most-recently published VM images from February through March that are now available for Microsoft Azure Government customers. Published in February- March Marketplace Images* - Added to Azure Gov and DoD: *All Marketplace Images now supported in DoD Regions! First Party Images - Added to Azure Gov and DoD Published in April-May: Marketplace Images - Added to Azure Gov and DoD First Party Images - Added to Azure Gov and DoD We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continua...
ArcGIS Maps for Power BI Gov by Esri now available
We are happy to announce that Power BI Gov users can now use ArcGIS Maps for Power BI Gov (preview) created by Esri! This brings several new capabilities to Power BI Gov users. Geographic information systems (GIS) helps users gain a better understanding of the world by using spatial analysis on a map's data layers. It's a way to discover, use, make and share the maps that are important to your organization. The ArcGIS Maps for Power BI visual is provided by Esri, so before you get started, you'll need to consent to Esri's terms of service and privacy statements, and acknowledge you're using the services operate...
Azure Government, Supporting Critical Missions with the NIST CSF
Updated: 6/8/2017 Updated again: 7/10/2017 In light of Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is once again top of mind for our community. At Microsoft, we maintain a dedicated CSF program, integrated into the overall risk management function of our enterprise. We understand the challenges posed to our customers by the executive order, and we are here to help. As referenced on the Microsoft Trust Center: "Microsoft has integrated the National Institute of Standards & Technology's (NIST) Cybers...
Deploying a Suspicious Activity Bot in Azure Commercial or Azure Government
Having spent many years in the Public Sector space, I have made a lot of friends on both the contractor and government employee sides of the aisle. So we are always having conversations about how Azure is making the world better both commercially as well as in the Public Sector space. Because of that, my mind is always thinking about how Azure can be leveraged by the Public Sector community and I believe that I have come up with a pretty cool solution that can be used in both the Commercial Azure Regions, but can also be deployed in Azure Government. Let me start by giving you a description of the application th...
Azure Blueprint illustrates the clear path to meet the Cybersecurity Executive Order
With the release of the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, agencies have new requirements to meet and document compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). Agencies have a limited window to document their current risk posture and plans to fully comply with the Executive Order. Additionally, agencies are required by policy to "show preference in their procurement for shared IT services, to the extent permitted by law, including email, cloud, and cybersecurity services." Azure...
Join us May 31! Azure Gov DC Meetup: Managing the Changing Hybrid Cloud Environment in Gov
Hybrid cloud is critical to government IT transformation, which means storing data on-premises and in the cloud. Keeping up with ever-changing IT environments presents myriad challenges for organizations. Please register now and join us for the Azure Government DC Meetup, Managing the Changing Hybrid Cloud Environment in Gov, on Wed., May 31, from 6 - 8:30 p.m., at 1776. We are excited to feature Microsoft's Brian Harrison, cloud solution architect and Operational Management Suite (OMS) expert, who will share valuable insights on how agencies can gain visibility and control across their hybrid cloud. Brian wi...
How to prepare for one – The CJIS Security Audit
In Microsoft's continuous effort to provide resources and guidance to agencies to help them meet their CJIS regulatory requirements, Microsoft collaborated with Alan Ferretti, CJIS Security Analyst and Subject Matter Expert of the CJIS ACE Division at Diverse Computing and former CJIS Information Security Officer (ISO), to ponder the following question: "What is a CJIS Technical Audit like and what should an agency do to prepare for one?" With many years of experience, Alan provided an insightful, detailed answer that is important to share. He has been involved in thousands of agency audits, both giving an audit...
Announcing Cosmos DB and Blob (Hot/Cool) Storage
As we look to continue to expand and evolve the platform, we are excited to announce two new generally available services in Azure Government: Azure Cosmos DB and Blob Storage (Hot/Cool). Yesterday Microsoft announced Azure Cosmos DB and today we are bringing it to you in Azure Government. The update will be rolled out to all Azure Government users in the coming days. This is part of our effort to accelerate innovation in our government cloud. Azure Cosmos DB Azure Cosmos DB started as "Project Florence" in the late 2010 to address developer pain-points faced by large scale applications inside Microsoft, ob...
Expanding Cognitive Services Pilot for Azure Government
Update (05/16/17): Emotion was originally called out a separate API but all functionality is included as part of the Face API. The standalone Emotion API is not part of our deployment in Azure Government. In March, we announced the initial preview of Cognitive Services in Azure Government. Today we are expanding the initial preview to include all Azure Government customers. Building Artificial Intelligence into your applications can be a daunting task. With Cognitive Services, we bring a set of APIs that allow you to quickly integrate AI into your application. Our partners during the preview have been using th...
Microsoft Azure Government Expands Support for Defense Industrial Base and Defense Contractors – Announcing Support for DFARS Requirements
Microsoft is furthering its commitment to U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contractors and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) by announcing support for Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) requirements for Azure Government Services. This allows DoD's mission partners to host Covered Defense Information (CDI) in Microsoft's secure, compliant cloud dedicated to US government workloads. DFARS 252.204-7012 specifies required contract clauses related safeguarding Covered Defense Information and cyber incident reporting requirements for cloud service providers (CSPs). Compliance with DFARS requir...
Register and join us May 12: Defense Contracting: Delivering on the Demands of Secure Cloud for DOD
Register to join Washington Technology and Microsoft on Friday, May 12, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., for a free morning event, at the Ritz Carlton, Tysons Corner. Defense contractors, systems integrators and members of the Defense Industrial Base will gather to hear insights into technologies and strategies that can help deliver secure commercial cloud solutions. Learn how to exceed customer's cloud security requirements and get a competitive edge in this growing market. Defense organizations are looking for business partners that can execute on cloud security-not just on controls specified by the DFARS bu...
Now Available: Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Virtualized Next-Generation Firewall
Comprehensive, Prevention-Based Security for Azure Government Cloud Today on Azure Government The Palo Alto Networks® VM-Series virtualized next-generation firewall on Microsoft Azure allows government agencies to apply the same advanced threat prevention features and next-generation firewall application policy controls used in their physical data centers to the Azure Government Cloud. As a result, government agencies can confidently make the move to a public infrastructure, while ensuring that their applications and data are protected from a wide range of known and unknown threats. Enabling Cloud First Governm...
Azure Gov April Meetup Replay: Enhancing Government Services Through Advanced Analytics
For those who could not join us at the April Azure Gov DC Meetup, we are pleased to bring you the replay of "Enhancing Government Services Through Advanced Analytics". The first segment kicks off with Azure Government updates then features Lisa Connelly, account executive, and Bonnie Strayer, senior solution engineer, of Esri's National Government Team. In addition to providing insight to Esri and Microsoft's collaboration to provide more efficient solutions for customers, they also showcase a Chesapeake Conservancy use case. In the second segment, Karriem Lateef, technology solutions professional, Micros...
Azure Friday video featuring Azure Government!
In the newest episode of Azure Friday, Steve Michelotti talks with Scott Hanselman about Azure Government, which provides a separate physical and network-isolated instance of Azure for federal, state, and local governments with a higher level of compliance for US Government workloads. Steve shows how easy it is to get connected and get started with Azure Government. Checkout the Azure Friday video library and the video below! We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continually improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subscribe to...
We want to hear from you! Azure Government on Feedback site
We are pleased to announce the general availability of Azure Government Feedback through feedback.azure.com. Internal and external customers can now submit feedback and requests for services and scenarios in Azure Government through this site. For support please file a support ticket in the Azure portal and for any personal questions or feedback please email the Feedback alias at azuregovfeedback@microsoft.com . To get up-to-date public information on service releases and all things Azure Government, please subscribe to the RSS feed or click "Subscribe by Email!" on the Azure Government Blog. Azure Government Fe...
Setup continuous deployment to Microsoft Azure Government using Visual Studio Team Services
Continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) help teams reliably deliver quality apps to end customers at a faster pace of update. From code through build, test, and deployment you can define efficient and fully managed pipelines that automate and control the entire process. Release Management in Visual Studio Team Services is a powerful service that enables CD for various applications. Onetime configuration and repeated execution of the release pipelines means the automated delivery process is started whenever a new build is available. Microsoft Azure Government has unique Azure endpoints to ma...
Microsoft hosts Justice & Public Safety leaders at the 2nd annual CJIS Summit
Transparency is the foundation of Microsoft’s commitment to CJIS Compliance Founded on our commitment of transparency, Microsoft hosted the 2nd annual CJIS Summit, offering leaders in law enforcement the opportunity to collaborate directly with our compliance engineers, executives, and our Justice and Public Safety team. Attendees included law enforcement leaders from sixteen states, representation from the FBI CJIS Division, Diverse Computing Inc., and the IJIS Institute . The IJIS Institute provides a trusted venue where leaders from the government and industry come to collaborate on the challenges of advanc...
Check us out at Virtual Azure Gov Discovery Day tomorrow!
Strengthen security and compliance, uncover critical insights, and modernize infrastructure with Microsoft Azure Government Checkout the presentations tomorrow for Virtual Azure Gov Discovery Day event! You’ll hear from industry leaders, analysts, and experts featuring Tom Keane, general manager, Microsoft and Steve Michelotti, senior program manager, Azure Government, who discuss how your agency can achieve more while staying compliant and secure with Microsoft Azure Government. Over the course of eight sessions you will see presentations that will help you modernize your agency and kick off your digital transf...
The Azure Podcast: featuring Azure Government
In the latest episode of The Azure Podcast, Steve Michelotti of the Azure Government engineering sits down with The Azure Podcast team to discuss the latest and greatest of Azure Government. Steve also provides an update on what is going on in Azure Government including: Check it out! Additional ways to listen: Listen on iTunes Listen on the Azure Podcast We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continually improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and to receive emails, click “Subscribe by Emai...
Azure Gov March Meetup Replay: How to Apply Cognitive Services to Your Agency’s Mission
For those who could not join us at the Azure Government DC user community’s March Meetup, we are pleased to bring you the replay of “How to Apply Cognitive Services to Your Agency’s Mission” which took place at 1776 in Washington, DC. The first segment of the “Meetup Replay” features in-depth demos on how a user can use Cognitive Services immediately to perform functions such as facial recognition, voice recognition, live translation of languages, image analysis, and face redaction from a video feed –presented by Microsoft’s Steve Michelotti, senior program manager, Azure Government; and Ken Hausman, data ...
Cloudera Enterprise Data hub now available on Azure Government Marketplace
Deploy the full power of Cloudera's enterprise data hub on-demand with Cloudera Director, or through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Quickly launch, run, and scale production Hadoop clusters that meet your demanding data workloads. You can also use Cloudera Cent OS Quick Start Templates to deploy to Azure Government Joint Solution Overview Additional resources/ Links https://www.cloudera.com/partners/solutions/microsoft.html We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continually improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subs...
The CJIS Security Policy – Analyzing the 13 Policy Areas: Part III
Better than a sleeping pill or a riveting read? Welcome back to the third and final post in this series on the CJIS Security Policy. Our last post ended with Policy Area 7 of section 5 concerning Network Diagrams. Policy Area 8 covers Media Protection and how to protect it both in transit and at rest. It also covers the proper way to dispose of media that contains Criminal Justice Information (CJI) when it is no longer needed. Media is considered both digital and physical (paper) in nature. It is also where encryption is defined as the correct way to protect digital media outside a physically secure location. ...
Announcing the Azure Government HackFest + Training Event – June 7-8 in Washington, DC
Join us! Microsoft Azure Government HackFest + Training, June 7-8 in Washington, DC. Calling all developers and IT pros in the DC-metro area in the Government space! The Microsoft Azure Government team invites you to register and participate in our HackFest + Training event, June 7-8, at the Microsoft location in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Register now for this can't-miss opportunity that features one day of training presentations by members of the Microsoft Azure Government Engineering team followed by an all-day HackFest for all experience levels (yes, ALL are welcome – newcomers to experienced developers – in ...
Introducing the Azure Government Video Library
The Azure Government team is pleased to announce our new Azure Government Channel on YouTube. This video library is easily searchable on YouTube and is also now linked directly from our Azure Government Blog. The Azure Government video library was originally hosted on Channel9, but was migrated to YouTube in 2018. This video library will contain many helpful videos to get you up and running with Azure Government. Currently, we have several videos published from the recent Microsoft Tech Summit conference in DC. If you missed the Tech Summit, our video library is the #1 place to go to catch up on all the conten...
Join Us April 26: Enhancing Government Services Through Advanced Analytics
Data is all around us, and it is becoming increasingly hard to abstract relevant insights from our data that lead to intelligent action. With this in mind, we invite you to RSVP and join us for a can't-miss Azure Government DC Meetup, Enhancing Government Services Through Advanced Analytics, on Wednesday, April 26 at 1776 in Washington, DC. In one of a couple of case studies, you will hear about advanced analytics capabilities and see how raw data is transformed into actionable insight used to save lives. At the core of this presentation is the recent White House “call to action” around traffic fatalities. Du...
Introducing the Azure Environment Selector Visual Studio extension
Visual Studio has many tools that enable developers to easily interact with Azure. These are tools like the Cloud Explorer for Visual Studio 2017, Visual Studio Server Explorer, the main Visual Studio login, and even being able to right-click in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer to deploy a web project to Azure. However, by default, these tools connect directly to the Azure commercial cloud. What about Azure Government developers? In the Azure Government documentation, we show how you can place an Azure Active Directory configuration file in a directory that enables Visual Studio to point to Azure Governmen...
The CJIS Security Policy – Analyzing the 13 Policy Areas: Part II
Better than a sleeping pill or a riveting read? In our last blog post, Alan Ferretti, CJIS Security Analyst and Subject Matter Expert of the CJIS ACE Division at Diverse Computing, and I covered the first four sections of the CJIS Security Policy. We will continue with Section 5 and its thirteen Policy areas and how they impact you and your agency. You will find out why it is called the Policy and Implementation Section for good reason. The first Policy area addresses Information Exchange agreements. The policies for information exchange are designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure, alteration or misuse. Th...
Data security Q&A with John Molesky, Azure Security Engineering
In this post, we interviewed Azure Program Manager, John Molesky, from the Cloud Health and Security Engineering team with commonly asked questions regarding data security. For many customers, moving to the cloud means a change in processes to manage data, including data destruction and spillage. John's answers help address those concerns. 1. How can customers secure access to storage accounts? Azure offers a few ways to secure access to storage accounts. When a storage account is created, Azure generates 512-bit storage access keys, which, when combined with the storage account name, can be used to access the...
Microsoft Azure IaaS Architecture Best Practices for ARM
How to design and build an enterprise infrastructure in Azure using the Azure Resource Manager portal Getting started in Azure is easy to do, and you can have production workloads running in the cloud in very little time. However, there are some essential aspects of the Azure platform that require some forethought and planning. While it is easy to get up and running quickly, without the necessary planning in some areas, you could find it necessary to rebuild these workloads later if you haven’t fully considered the bigger picture—from an enterprise perspective. Let’s avoid the necessity of having to redeploy or r...
The CJIS Security Policy – Analyzing the 13 Policy Areas: Part I
Better than a sleeping pill or a riveting read? Recently Alan Ferretti and I were talking about compliance for agencies and lamented on the fact that most people malign the CJIS Security Policy as a good cure for insomnia. It seems you can’t attend a conference where a speaker doesn’t make a joke about it. When in fact, the Policy is important to all law enforcement practitioners and forms the basis for the protection of Criminal Justice Information (CJI). Being compliant takes a commitment at all levels - from an agency, to the technical staff that supports them, out to the vendors with their essential product...
Setting up VNET integration in App Services using Powershell
One of the capabilities in the Web Apps Service is placing your Azure resources in a non-internet routable network that you can control access to. These networks can be connected to your on-premise networks using VPN technologies. For example, with VNET integration you can enable access from your web app to resources running on a virtual machine in your Azure virtual network. It is important to note that this will not isolate your WebApp from the internet, but rather enable it and other resources to operate within the integrated VNET. We will be enabling the UI aspect of this feature in the upcoming months. In...
Microsoft Signs CJIS Information Agreements with Indiana and Iowa
Microsoft has signed agreements with 28 states – now over 50% of the states are covered representing 70% of U.S. sworn officers. Microsoft contractually committed to the applicable controls of the CJIS Security Policy by signing a CJIS Information Agreements with Indiana and Iowa. This commitment allows CJIS Systems Agencies to background check our employees with potential access to Criminal Justice Information (CJI), audit our controls to validate compliance, and allows law enforcement agencies the opportunity to deploy innovative solutions for camera technology, biometrics, jail/court/offender management, inve...
Announcing general availability of Publish to Web in Power BI Pro for Government
We are happy to announce the general availability of Publish to Web in Power BI Pro for Government. With Power BI Publish to Web, customers can now easily embed interactive Power BI visualizations online, such as in blog posts, websites, through emails or social media, on any device. They will also be able to easily edit, update, refresh or un-share your published visuals. For more details on how to use Publish to Web, view the documentation here. We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continually improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be ...
Announcing DSv2-Series and Fs-Series VMs in US Gov Virginia
We are happy to announce the general availability of DSv2-Series and Fs-Series (not to be confused with F-series) virtual machines in US Gov Virginia. DSv2-series and Fs-series VMs can use Premium Storage, which provides high-performance, low-latency storage for Input/Output intensive workloads. These VMs use solid-state drives (SSDs) to host a virtual machine’s disks and also provide a local SSD disk cache. For customers already utilizing DS-Series VMs in US Gov Virginia, DSv2 offers similar memory and disk, but offers more powerful CPUs which are based on 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processors and...
Veterans Affairs issues FedRAMP High ATO for Microsoft Azure Government
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the US government’s largest civilian agency, has issued a FedRAMP High Authority to Operate (ATO) for Microsoft Azure Government. This validates that the Microsoft Azure Government cloud meets all security and compliance standards necessary to handle VA’s most sensitive data, to include PII and PHI workloads. The FedRAMP High ATO for Azure Government is a critical next step as the VA readies to leverage the cloud to modernize services for veterans around the world. The High compliance standard coverage of sensitive data including PII and PHI along with VA’s high-speed d...
Getting Started with Storage in Azure Government
Azure Government uses the same underlying technologies as commercial Azure, enabling you to use the development tools you’re already familiar with. However, Azure Government provides a physical and network-isolated instance of Azure which results in a higher level of compliance and security. As a result of this, we use different physical endpoints for our services such as Azure Storage. Getting started with Storage on Azure Government is quite easy. The Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer has quickly become one of the most popular tools for working with Azure Storage. It is cross-platform and free. We are happy to ...
Building a solution on Azure Government Part III: Power BI
Now that we’ve done our text analysis using HDInsight, let’s add some high-quality visualizations using Power BI for Azure Government. Let’s first log into Power BI for Azure Gov. Here we are presented with our initial options. Let’s connect to a database by clicking the “Get” button in the “Database” tile: In the next screen, we can see that we have an option for Spark on Azure HDInsight: Once we select Spark, we need to specify the server we want to connect to (we can get this value directly from the URL for the HDInsight cluster in the Azure Government portal): We use the credentials we setup during p...
Join us March 29 in DC: Learn How to Apply Cognitive Services to Your Agency’s Mission
Offering myriad possibilities, cognitive services teach computers to understand the world as humans do. This emerging technology can provide exciting and powerful capabilities for government agencies to better meet their unique missions and improve citizen services and engagement. To hear how cognitive services can advance government, RSVP and join the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community for our next Meetup, Learning How to Apply Cognitive Services to Your Agency's Mission, on Wednesday, March 29 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC. This month, we are excited to have Justin "Doc" Herm...
Building a solution on Azure Government Part II: HDInsight
In the previous post I went over how to use Cognitive services to get a document translated, let’s do some simple text analytics on the document. Specifically, we’ll get some simple word counts so we can see how frequently the key words are used. We can easily provision HDInsight clusters in the Microsoft Azure Government portal. The screen shot below shows a 4-node Spark cluster provisioned on Linux. When an HDInsight cluster is provisioned, an Azure storage account is provisioned for the underlying storage. Let’s connect to the storage with the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer so that we can upload our tran...
Building a solution on Azure Government Part I: Cognitive Services
The Microsoft Azure Government platform is rapidly innovating with new services being introduced all the time. We have recently announced HDInsight and Power BI as GA on Azure Government. These data-centric services unlock a world of possibilities for your organization to process massive amount of data. In this developer-centric walk-through, I will show you how you can leverage Azure Government to implement a Government-focused scenario. In this scenario, we will translate a Chinese document to English and then perform data analytics and visualizations on that translation. This walk-through will consist of 3 ma...
Azure HDInsight and Power BI now available in Azure Government
As announced in Tom Keane’s data launch announcement, we are pleased to bring the general availability of Azure HDInsight on Linux in Microsoft Azure Government, as well as, Power BI US Government with Office 365 US Government Community subscriptions. HDInsight Azure HDInsight deploys and provisions clusters from the Apache Hadoop ecosystem (including Spark, Storm, Hbase) in the cloud, providing a software framework designed to manage, analyze, and report on big data. To see how HDInsight on Linux integrates into Government-specific data solutions, check out the demo here. HDInsight Premium is currently in Previ...
Microsoft Tech Summit DC to feature government-focused sessions – March 6-7
Are you headed to the Microsoft Tech Summit March 6-7 in Washington, DC? If so, be sure to connect with the Azure Government Engineering team. Among the more than 50 technical training sessions, we are hosting 14 government-specific sessions starting with a can’t-miss “What’s New in Azure Government Cloud” by Tom Keane, General Manager, Microsoft Azure, 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., in the Rotunda Room following the keynote. Check out all the government-focused sessions below and be sure to stop by the Azure Government booth to visit us in the sponsor pavilion. We look forward seeing you at the summit! #MSTechS...
A former CJIS ISO perspective: Microsoft’s commitment to law enforcement from top to bottom
“I have worked with hundreds of vendors in my twelve years as CJIS ISO in Texas, and never have I found any vendor more committed to law enforcement.” Alan Ferretti, Former CJIS ISO in Texas Alan Ferretti, former Texas CJIS Information Security Officer (ISO), and I have been working together for nearly five years. He recently retired and wanted to provide his perspective on being a former CJIS ISO and working with Microsoft. Alan Ferretti As a State CJIS ISO, you never know what you’ll be dealing with when the phone rings. Sometimes it might be an auditor with a disabled vehicle up in the Panhandle, or it may ...
Getting Started with Azure – Backing Up VMs
In my last post, I provided you with some simple steps on how to “Get Started” with the Azure Backup service by focusing on the Backup Vault and Policies that are associated with Vaults and VMs. Starting from there, I would like to go to the next and final step, which is the actual Backing Up of VMs or Servers. In the below video, I will walk you through how to enable an Azure VM for Backup Protection using the Vault and Policies that we created in the previous post. I will also talk about how you can enable your On-Premises VMs as well as how you can configure them to only backup certain files and folders rathe...
Azure Government extends lead in the Cloud with leap in FedRAMP coverage
Microsoft continues to lead the charge in realizing the power and promise of the cloud for Government customers. We are pleased to announce that Azure Government has been granted authorization for 12 additional customer-facing services to our FedRAMP High P-ATO. We now offer 32 Infrastructure and Platform services to our customers in our Azure Government compliance boundary, all of which have been authorized for use with up to High impact level data. Our coverage of services, and the rate at which we are increasing our scope, highlight our commitment to being the most Trusted and Certified cloud, accelerating com...
Getting Started with Azure – Backup Vaults and Policies
One of the biggest questions that government customers may have when migrating to Azure Government, is how they can quickly get up and running. There are a number of different challenges that a customer may have, and many different services that we offer within Azure. Backup Vaults and policies are one of the many services we offer to ease your transition to the cloud. What I thought that I would do is to try and make it as easy as possible for our customers and potential customers to get started with our services by providing a video blog series. This blog series will provide a video walkthrough of how to setup...
The Importance of Regulation – Microsoft Signs CJIS Information Agreement with Missouri
Microsoft has signed agreements with 26 states – contractually committing to CJIS requirements for more than 2/3rds of the US Population Do you ever wonder why we have government regulation? Do you have to deal with regulations to get your job done? My family runs a hog farm and there are a number of regulations that have confused me. In the 25 years my family has been raising livestock, I have become more aware of the regulations we have to comply with. Some of them have caught me off guard, such as needing to document that we feed the hogs. Seriously? Of course, we feed them, they are our revenue source! I c...
Keeping up with Azure Government – January Highlights
As we start the new year, Azure Government team is looking to add more capabilities for our government customers. We are excited by all of the progress that was made last year and we plan to build off of that momentum this year. Just this month we became the only hyper-scale cloud to achieve the US Department of Defense Impact Level 5 certification enabling Azure Government to hold all types of unclassified DoD information. Check out everything else we have done to start off the year down below! Regional Announcements: Services/Features: Tutorials: Significant Updates to Azure Government D...
Azure Government Documentation: January update
Thanks to our customers, partners, and Azure team for contributing to a great start to Azure Government documentation! We now fully integrated with the rest of the Azure documentation. You will notice that they add an “Other Clouds” tab where you can find Azure Government and Azure Stack documentation. We have expanded to over 25 articles, matured our user experience, are in the process of expanding our content on how to build solutions and onboard successfully, and establishing our videos/demos library in the coming weeks. Check out our new and updated content: We enco...
VM Images Update from December through January
We are pleased to share with you the most-recently published VM images from December and January that are now available for Microsoft Azure Government customers. Published in January: * This sku is Powershell/classic Portal only, same in Azure Public. Published in December: We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us continually improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and to receive emails, click “Subscribe by Email!” on the Azure Govern...
Join us Feb. 22 in DC: “Achieving Governance in Today’s Cloud Era – Gov Edition”
With the ever-increasing complexity and proliferation of data, protecting our nation’s most valuable information is no easy endeavor. In response to this growing challenge, the Microsoft Azure Government DC user community will discuss strategies for governance that have helped government agencies prepare for today’s cloud era. Be sure to RSVP to join your government and industry peers for the next Azure Government DC Meetup, Achieving Governance in Today's Cloud Era – Gov Edition, on Wednesday, Feb. 22 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC. This month's Meetup will feature government and industry pane...
VNET Peering generally available for Azure Government
Earlier this year we were able to bring VNET peering to Azure Government, with all of the same functions as commercial Azure. We are aware that government agencies often have complex networking requirements. This means that VNET peering is a key ask from our customers and are glad to provide this solution for our customers. VNET peering is a mechanism that connects two virtual networks (VNETs) in the same region through the Azure backbone network. Once peered, the two virtual networks appear as one for all connectivity purposes. They are still managed as separate resources, but virtual machines in these virtu...
Azure Blueprint helps DoD Mission Owners accelerate compliance with L5 security controls
Azure Government Engineering is pleased to announce the release of Azure Blueprint for the DoD Information Impact Level 5 baseline. Azure Blueprint provides DoD customers with a simplified method to understand the scope of their security responsibilities when architecting solutions in Azure, streamlining the path to attain a mission-level Authority to Operate (ATO). This release includes a DoD L5 Customer Responsibility Matrix and System Security Plan template designed for use by DoD Mission Owners, Authorizing Officials, and other security personnel who are implementing and documenting mission-level system secu...
Azure DoD Regions Accredited at Impact Level 5 and Now Generally Available
Earlier today Tom Keane, General Manager, Azure announced that Azure Government is the first and only hyperscale commercial cloud service to be awarded an Information Impact Level 5 DoD Provisional Authorization by the Defense Information Systems Agency. In addition, Azure Government regions dedicated to US Department of Defense customer workloads are now generally available. In anticipation of high demand for the DoD regions, we’ve spent time compiling answers to the most frequently asked questions we’ve heard during our recently completed Preview program to help interested customers and partners understand w...
How to manage Azure Government directories with Powershell
When utilizing a new directory for your Azure Government environment, one gap commonly encountered is assigning an alternate email address to each user. This attribute is only mandatory for accounts given a Service Administrator role, thus many accounts, including Co-Administrators, do not have the attribute set. Enabling features such as Self-Service Password Reset requires the alternate email address to be assigned as well. The Azure Active Directory V2 PowerShell module can be used to solve this issue. If you have used this PowerShell module for Azure Public, it is very similar with the exception of connecting...
Join us Jan 25 in DC: “How to Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud – Gov Edition”
As we enter the New Year, many government agencies continue to resolve to take advantage of cloud computing. However, oftentimes, agencies find that they are stuck, unprepared and seeking ways to help them transition to the cloud. With these challenges in mind the Microsoft Azure Government DC User Community is kicking off 2017 with a can't-miss Meetup, How to Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud - Gov Edition, on Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC. Be sure to RSVP today and join us for this month's Meetup featuring a speaker lineup of cloud experts who will help you figure out wh...
Announcing features for Backup and Site Recovery Services (OMS Suite) with Resource Manager
Azure Government revamps Azure backup and Azure site recovery services to facilitate advanced capabilities for Government cloud users. This update brings various enhancements, summarized in the table below. For more information and technical Documentation on Backup and Site Recovery please see Azure Government Documentation. We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and to receive emails by clicking “Subscribe by Email!” on the Azure Government Blog. To experience the powe...
California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) approves Microsoft Government Cloud services for Criminal Justice Information
California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) provides law enforcement and criminal justice agencies access to FBI and state Criminal Justice Information, along with the ability to communicate messages to other agencies within California, other states and Canada. As the interface to criminal justice information systems, CLETS approval is required for access to critical, life-saving public safety information. Last week, CLETS approved the Chula Vista Police Department to utilize Azure and Microsoft Office 365 government cloud services for Criminal Justice Information. This approval allows law enfor...
Docker announces federal security and compliance controls for Docker Datacenter built on Azure Blueprint
Security and compliance are top of mind for government IT organizations. It is important for these enterprises to have the ability to deploy applications on a commercial cloud platform that adheres to strong baseline security controls. U.S. Federal agencies and many non-government organizations are dependent on various standards and security assessments to ensure their systems are operating in controlled environments. One such standard is NIST Special Publication 800-53, which provides a library of security controls to which information technology systems should adhere. NIST 800-53 defines three security baseli...
Eight new service offerings added to Azure Government certification scope
We are pleased to announce the addition of Azure Resource Manager, Automation, Azure Batch, Log Analytics, Azure Media Services, Policy Administration Service/RBAC, Redis Cache, and Scheduler to certification scope in Microsoft Azure Government. Each of these service offerings has received Joint Authorization Board (JAB) approval for addition to Azure Government’s P-ATO at the High Impact Level. With the addition of these eight offerings, the total number of Azure Government offerings that meet the FedRAMP High baseline grows to 26 services; 20 more services than AWS GovCloud. These services may be used by Fed...
Azure Blueprint is now available for the FedRAMP High Baseline
Azure Government Engineering is pleased to announce the release of Azure Blueprint for the FedRAMP High Baseline. As previously announced, the Azure Blueprint program is designed to facilitate the secure and compliant use of Azure Government, providing a simplified way to understand the scope of customer security responsibilities when architecting solutions in Azure, and streamlining the path to attain a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Authorizations to Operate (ATO). This release includes documentation to assist Azure customers with documenting their security control implementations ...
Copying Azure resource groups between different Azure subscriptions or environments
Overview The Azure PowerShell module includes the Move-AzureRmResource cmdlet that allows you to move a resource to a different resource group or subscription, but it requires the subscriptions to be in the same tenant. What if you want to copy or move a resource group from a personal subscription (e.g. a free Microsoft Azure Pass) to a subscription under your corporate tenant? Or what if you have a resource group defined in the AzureCloud environment that you want to copy to another subscription? It can be done, but it requires considerable time and effort to manually recreate the network resources, copy the vi...
Microsoft signs CJIS Security Addendum with Utah-covering two-thirds of the US population
Meeting the applicable regulatory controls of the CJIS Security Policy is a long-term commitment for Microsoft. We don’t consider it a checkbox, it is a commitment. As part of this commitment Microsoft recently signed the CJIS Security Addendum with Utah--bringing the total states which Microsoft has signed the CJIS Security Addendum to 25. With the 25th state being signed, there is now support for two-thirds of the U.S. population; giving justice and public safety organizations the opportunity to implement advanced solutions in the secure, compliant, Microsoft government cloud. This commitment from Microsoft, c...
Join us: DC Azure Gov Meetup on Hybrid Cloud with ExpressRoute – Dec. 14
Hybrid is not a trend or a buzz word, it is a reality that every enterprise is facing today. Furthermore, real hybrid does not mean infrastructure alone. It applies to the entire stack from SaaS-based productivity services to PaaS and of course IaaS. It means consistency across on-premises and the cloud. A key part of Microsoft’s Hybrid story for government is ExpressRoute which will be the focus of our next DC Azure Government Meetup Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at 1776 in Washington, DC. We are fortunate to have James Walters, director of Azure EcoSystem Networking for Microsoft Azure Government j...
Azure QuickStart Templates for Azure Government
With the release of Azure Resource Manager on Microsoft Azure Government (MAG), users are now able to provision and deploy applications using declarative templates. A full listing of publicly contributed templates can be found at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/templates/ . How to use QuickStart Templates in MAG Many of the contributed templates in our Github repo https://github.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates will work on MAG without modification. Deploy options are described below. Templates that don’t follow the best practices outlined in our Github repo typically won’t run for a coup...
Azure Import / Export – Working with FIPS and other security controls
I was recently working with one of our government customers that wanted to make use of a newer offering: Azure Import/Export. Now I know what you’re saying… “Chase, this has been out since 2014.” True, this isn’t a new service to Azure, but it was recently accredited and made generally available to the Azure Government space. If you aren’t familiar with the service, it’s an easy way to transfer large amounts of data from the outside world into Azure storage. There is a very similar offering for Office 365 as well (think PSTs). The tool itself is a command line interface that copies data to a BitLocker encrypted ...
Solution Template support now available in Azure Government Marketplace
Last month we announced Azure Marketplace availability in Azure Government, which included individual VM publishing capabilities. Today we’re pleased to announce that solution templates are now supported in the Azure Government Marketplace portal. Solution templates allow you to bundle multiple Azure services and images into a template that enables customers to deploy all solutions at once, saving time and resources. You can now deploy the below solutions through templates directly via the Marketplace UI, with additional solution templates being added regularly. Additional Resources: We w...
Azure Disk Encryption availability for Azure Government cloud customers
Today, we announce the general availability of Azure disk encryption for Windows and Linux IaaS VMs in Azure Government cloud regions. With this announcement, Azure disk encryption for Windows and Linux IaaS Standard tier VMs (Std A, D, DS, G, GS etc series) is now generally available in all Azure Gov cloud regions to enable customers to protect the OS and data disk at rest using industry standard encryption technology. Azure Disk Encryption is a capability that lets you encrypt your Windows and Linux IaaS VM disks. Azure Disk Encryption leverages the industry standard BitLocker feature of Windows and the DM-Cry...
Azure Government Marketplace Loves Open Source and Bitnami
Azure Government is excited to expand our partnership with Bitnami via the Azure Government Marketplace beyond the initial offering in Image Gallery. We are happy to announce the first wave of open source images published by Bitnami to the Azure Government marketplace. The first wave of free open source and Bring Your Own License (BYOL) licenses includes eXo Platform Enterprise, ReportServer Enterprise, Moodle, Gitlab, Code Dx, LAMP, Drupal, WordPress, Open edX. Bitnami makes it incredibly easy to deploy apps with native installers, as virtual machines in the cloud. Bitnami has over a hundred application...
Azure Government Cloud expands P-ATO scope with addition of five new offerings
We are pleased to announce that Azure’s Government Cloud has expanded its FedRAMP Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) with the addition of five new offerings. Service Bus, Notification Hubs, Site Recovery, StorSimple, and Backup have all received Joint Authorization Board (JAB) approval for addition to Azure Government’s P-ATO at the High Impact Level. With the addition of these five offerings, the total number of Azure Government offerings that meet the FedRAMP High baseline grows to 18. About our new offerings: Azure Service Bus: Provides cloud-enabled communication with enterprise messaging and rel...
Log Analytics: How Operational Management Suite keeps customers safe and secure on Azure
This is my last post in this series where we have been talking about the Operational Management Suite (OMS) within Azure Government and how it can make customers feel safe & secure. In the previous posts we focused on the Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and Azure Automation services that help make up the suite. Now I want to spend some time and talk about my favorite of the services, which is Log Analytics. This is not to say that the other three services are not important or exciting, it is just that I feel that Azure Government customers can see much more value from Log Analytics and the information t...
Automation Runbooks & DSC: How Operational Management Suite keeps Customers Safe & Secure in Azure
In my last post, I talked about the second of the two services within the Operational Management Suit (OMS) that focuses on Backup & Recovery of your On-Prem or Cloud related infrastructure. However, this is only one piece of the operational management footprint that Public Sector customers' IT departments need to keep their applications and infrastructure safe, secure, and most importantly, functioning. The third service within OMS that I want to talk about now is Azure Automation, which you can think of as a service that will manage frequent, time-consuming, and error-prone management tasks. Automation Ru...
Site Recovery: How Operational Management Suite keeps customers safe and secure on Azure
In my last post, I spent some time providing an overview of Operational Management Suite (OMS) and specifically, the Azure Backup service. I tried to focus on the advantages of the suite from the perspective of a potential Azure Government customer as well as the perspective of customers that have already implemented or are implementing a Hybrid Cloud environment. In this post I want to continue the conversation about the different services within the suite by focusing on the Site Recovery service, and how it will add to the safety & security for Azure Government Cloud Customers and Hybrid Customers as well....
Join us: Cybersecurity Best Practices for Cloud in Government — Nov. 16 in DC
With billions of connected devices, our digital life is more convenient than ever. But those devices also create opportunities for attackers to move quickly from an initial breach to a major loss; and it can happen within minutes. Join us for the Microsoft Azure Government DC Meetup on Wednesday, Nov. 16 starting at 6 pm. as we discuss Cybersecurity Best Practices for Cloud in Government at 1776 in Washington DC. Hear from cybersecurity subject matter experts Capt. Matthew "Tux, Weiner, Cyber Weapons and Tactics, on Using the Cloud to Train Cyber Ninjas; and Jason Norton of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence...
Microsoft Signs CJIS Security Addendum with Georgia
Microsoft has now contractually committed to CJIS requirements in 24 states, covering nearly 2/3rds of the US population Microsoft has a long-term commitment to providing law enforcement agencies with cloud services they can trust to help keep them CJIS compliant. As part of this commitment Microsoft recently signed the CJIS Security Addendum and contractually committed to the applicable CJIS Security Policy controls with Georgia. This brings the total states adjudicating Microsoft employees to 24. As confirmed by James Brown, Chief Information Officer, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, “With the recent CJIS se...
Azure Government supports TIC capabilities
Federal customers that are part of the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative are using Microsoft Azure Government. Any Federal government agencies or departments can leverage Azure Government to build applications and services that comply with the TIC initiative. What is TIC? The TIC initiative is the common name for initiative number one of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). On November 20, 2007, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) designated the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the coordinator of the TIC initiative through Memorandum M-08-5 (with OMB continuing o...
Microsoft Azure Government and Booz Allen Announce Virtual Cloud Defense
Cloud Security Suite Brings Power and Simplicity to Securing Cloud Deployments Microsoft and Booz Allen Hamilton are pleased to announce the general availability of Virtual Cloud Defense (VCD) for Azure Government. Virtual Cloud Defense from Booz Allen helps Azure Government customers secure cloud workloads and protect data by deploying cost-effective cloud workload protection and security services. VCD builds upon Microsoft Azure’s unprecedented investments in cloud security and compliance and integrates third party best-of-breed, commercially available and government solutions provided through the Azure Gover...
DoD Region Preview frequently asked questions
Since announcing our Azure Government DoD Region Preview last week at Microsoft’s Government Cloud Forum, we have had overwhelming interest from customers and partners in participating. We’ve spent time compiling answers to the most frequently ask questions we’ve heard to help customers and partners understand what this unprecedented investment from Microsoft means to the Department of Defense and its partners and how to qualify for access to the environment. What are the Azure Government DoD Regions? The US DoD East and US DoD Central regions are physically separated regions of Microsoft Azure architected to...
Use Case: Azure Site Recovery in Azure Government
An organization must have the ability to withstand all hazards and sustain its mission through environmental changes. These changes can be gradual, such as economic or mission changes, or sudden, as in a disaster event. (NIST Special Publication 800-34 Rev. 1 Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems , 2010) Azure Government enables customers to utilize Azure Site Recovery (ASR) capabilities to automate protection and replication of virtual machines, both on-premises and into Azure providing a true Disaster Recovery as a Service Solution (DRaaS). Azure Site Recovery allows for data replication...
Microsoft and Fortinet Extend Partnership to Secure Mission-Critical Workloads in Azure Government Cloud
Co-author: Chad Whalen – VP Cloud Security, Fortinet Fortinet and Microsoft today announced an extension of their partnership to protect the cloud environments of their joint government customers. The US Federal Government sets the world’s highest security standards for data protection. Other public institutions, like state and local governments, police, and fire departments, follow these standards as well to protect the citizenry they serve. Partnering to Deliver Cloud Security for Government Organizations Fortinet and Microsoft are committed to delivering world-class security to Azure cloud workloads. With...