{"id":1535,"date":"2016-08-09T14:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2016-08-09T14:30:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T18:30:31","slug":"department-of-defense-frequently-asked-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/department-of-defense-frequently-asked-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Defense L4: FAQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">As more DoD customers look to leverage Azure Government cloud computing capabilities to modernize and create opportunities for agility within the mission space, there are a common set of questions that arise.\u00a0We pulled the most frequently asked questions together\u00a0to provide some guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: As a DoD customer, how do I acquire Azure Government?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: DoD customers have many options for acquiring Azure Government cloud services \u2013 either through one of our authorized <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industries\/government\/federal\/how-to-buy-federal\/\"><span>Microsoft Licensing Partners<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">\u00a0 or through one of the many Microsoft Solution Partners on a range of contract vehicles including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">GSA IT-70<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">GSA Cloud Services OCSC BPA<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Department of Interior FCHS<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">NASA SEWP V<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">NITAAC CIO-SP3<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">NITAAC CIO-CS<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">GSA Alliant<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Air Force NETCENTS-2<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Air Force NETCENTS-2 (SB)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Navy Seaport-e<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Customers pay only for the Azure Government services consumed &#8211; with no upfront capital investment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: What types of solutions can I build on the services available on Azure Government today?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: DoD customers are deploying a wide range of solutions on Azure Government today built on both on both our IaaS and PaaS offerings.\u00a0 These include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Public Facing Websites using <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/app-service\/web\/\"><span>Azure Web Apps<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Hosting workloads running on <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/documentation\/articles\/azure-government-image-gallery\/\"><span>Oracle<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"> and <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/2016\/07\/27\/microsoft-and-red-hat-partnership-expanded-to-government\/\"><span>Red Hat Enterprise Linux<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Hosting Production SharePoint farms on <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/virtual-machines\/\"><span>Azure Virtual Machines<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Reducing Storage Costs with <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/documentation\/services\/storage\/\"><span>Azure Blob Storage<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Modernization of Database Workloads using <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/sql-database\/\"><span>Azure SQL Database<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Development, Test and Pre-Production Environments<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Backup and Disaster Recovery with <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/site-recovery\/\"><span>Azure Site Recovery<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Innovating Training Programs using <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/media-services\/\"><span>Azure Media Services<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: Is Azure Government approved in the DoD for production workloads?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: Yes, Azure Government is approved for development, test <b>AND<\/b> production workloads that are categorized by the data owner or equivalent as Impact Level 4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q:\u00a0 How is Azure Government different from competitive offerings from other commercial cloud vendors?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: Azure Government is an engineered solution built specifically to the needs of our Federal, State and Local government customers.\u00a0 As such, we offer a number of differentiators from our competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Microsoft Azure Government provides a government-only network spanning multiple geographic regions greater than 500 miles apart for high availability and disaster recovery purposes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Microsoft Azure Government is the only commercial, hyperscale cloud vendor with DoD Impact Level 4 Provisional Authorization offering both IaaS and PaaS services. PaaS services provide the DoD customer with significant opportunities beyond simply re-hosting to reduce both capital and operational expenditures by reducing the costs of managing and maintaining infrastructure and perpetual software licensing as well as opportunities to innovate and transform legacy applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Microsoft offers enterprise scale <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/cloud-platform\/hybrid-cloud\"><span>hybrid cloud capability<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"> that does not rely on third party vendors for hosting facilities or bolt-on solutions. Given the DoD\u2019s investments in on-premises applications and datacenter infrastructure, it is critical that there be a glide path for migrating from on-premises to commercial cloud solutions.\u00a0 \u2018Cloud First\u2019 should not and cannot mean \u2018Cloud Only\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Microsoft provides first party support for Active Directory, the directory services standard throughout the DoD, with <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/cloud-platform\/azure-active-directory\"><span>Azure Active Directory<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">. Our competition relies on 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party tools and deploying additional infrastructure to support directory services and identity federation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Microsoft offers first-party support for workloads deployed on Azure Government that utilize other Microsoft technology (Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, etc.) as well as that same level of support for Oracle, Red Hat and other 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party partnerships. Our competition provides \u2018best effort\u2019 support for Microsoft workloads and varying degrees of support for third-party solution.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: What Azure Government services are included in your current DoD Impact Level 4 Provisional Authorization?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: The following Azure Government services are currently covered by our current DoD Impact Level 4 Provisional Authorization:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Azure Active Directory<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Application Gateway<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Cloud Services<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Load Balancer<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">SQL Database<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Storage<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Traffic Manager<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Virtual Machines<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Virtual Network<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">VPN Gateway<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Azure Key Vault<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Azure Web Apps<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">ExpressRoute<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: How will Azure Government make services available and compliant for government customers so that Impact Level 4 doesn\u2019t become stale?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: Our Azure Government Engineering team is committed to a continuous compliance program by which Microsoft is submitting additional services to FedRAMP and the DoD for accreditation on a regular, repeatable cadence.\u00a0 Azure Government is an \u2018evergreen\u2019 platform &#8211;\u00a0 introducing innovation through new and the expansion of existing services with complimentary compliance capability on a continuous basis &#8211; similarly to how we achieve these same goals in the public cloud.\u00a0 Look for updates in this space related to new service announcements and compliance updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: With Impact Level 4 workloads traffic must be routed through a DoD-approved cloud access point.\u00a0 Does Microsoft\u2019s Azure Government solution support this?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: We support connectivity to multiple DoD cloud access points (CAPs) through our ExpressRoute service.\u00a0 This service allows customers to create private connections between Azure Government\u2019s datacenters and DoD network infrastructure in 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party colocation environments.\u00a0 More information on the ExpressRoute service can be found at <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/expressroute\/\"><span>https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/expressroute\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">Q: How do I get access to try Azure Government?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">A: Request an <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aka.ms\/AzureGovTrial\"><span>Azure Government Trial<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">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 <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/feed\/\"><span>RSS feed<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"> and to receive emails by clicking \u201cSubscribe by Email!\u201d on the <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #0070c0;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/\"><span>Azure Government Blog<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: #3b3838;font-family: 'Segoe UI',sans-serif;font-size: 10.5pt\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As more DoD customers look to leverage Azure Government cloud computing capabilities to modernize and create opportunities for agility within the mission space, there are a common set of questions that arise.\u00a0We pulled the most frequently asked questions together\u00a0to provide some guidance. Q: As a DoD customer, how do I acquire Azure Government? A: DoD [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1771,"featured_media":20423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,25],"tags":[75,95,240,262,373],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azuregov","category-portalpreview","tag-azure","tag-azure-government","tag-department-of-defense","tag-dod","tag-l4"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>As more DoD customers look to leverage Azure Government cloud computing capabilities to modernize and create opportunities for agility within the mission space, there are a common set of questions that arise.\u00a0We pulled the most frequently asked questions together\u00a0to provide some guidance. Q: As a DoD customer, how do I acquire Azure Government? A: DoD [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}