Eric Lee, Partner Technical Architect
Microsoft Cloud for Government is specifically designed for public sector customers in the United States who want to select from a range of cloud computing services. Microsoft Cloud for Government provides flexibility, cost savings opportunities, and rigorous security and compliance including FedRAMP, ITAR, IRS 1075, CJIS, and DoD SRG.
There are three major Microsoft Cloud for Government environments public sector customers can choose from: Azure Government, Office 365 Government, and Dynamics 365 Government. Each plan is offered as a monthly subscription and can be licensed to an unlimited number of users.
Find out who’s eligible
Office 365 for US Government is Microsoft’s suite of cloud productivity services, implemented according to United States Department of Defense, federal, state, local, and tribal agency security and compliance requirements. Microsoft has a strict validation program to determine eligibility before customers and partners can access Office 365 for US Government cloud.
Office 365 for US Government plans are available to:
- Qualified government entities, including US federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities
- Other entities (subject to validation of eligibility) who handle data subject to government regulations and requirements, where use of Office 365 for US Government is appropriate to meet these regulations and requirements
Get validated
Validation of eligibility by Microsoft will include confirmation of handling data subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), law enforcement data subject to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) policy, or other government-regulated or controlled data. Validation may require proof of registration with the US Department of State for ITAR data, or sponsorship by a government entity with specific requirements for the handling of data. The Office 365 DoD environment is for the exclusive use of the United States Department of Defense.
Office 365 for US Government environments provide enterprise-grade infrastructure for US government organizations. Microsoft’s cloud environments are secure by design at the physical, logical, and data layers. Benefits include datacenter redundancy across its US-based cloud to provide disaster recovery, high availability, and better service performance. Customer content is stored within the United States, and is logically segregated from customer content in Microsoft’s commercial Office 365 Services.
Get more with Teams
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace that enables teams to be more productive by giving them a single and secure location that brings together everything a team needs including chats, meetings, calls, files, and tools. Teams in Government Community Cloud (GCC) has been built to meet the enhanced security and compliance requirements of our GCC customers allowing them to transform communications and collaboration.
Microsoft announced Teams availability for the US Government Community Cloud (GCC) on July 17, 2018. We’re currently working to bring Microsoft Teams to the other US Government clouds (GCC High and DoD), and more updates will be coming soon. Microsoft Teams is part of the Office 365 US Government plans that provide all the features and capabilities of Office 365 services, enabling organizations to be productive while meeting US compliance and security standards.
To accommodate the requirements of our government cloud customers, there are some differences between Teams for GCC and Teams for Commercial. The features listed in the following table are unavailable as of today in Teams for GCC.
Next steps
Plan for Office 365 Government GCC deployments. Find out more at the following links:
Join our community call to learn more
Excited about what we’ve announced? Want to hear more? Register for the Public Sector community call on Thursday, January 10. We’ll talk about Microsoft Teams for Government Partners in a conversational dialogue. Sign up for the call today!
You can also check out our additional resources in the US Federal, State & Local Government Technical Community: