Microsoft's Government Azure Cloud Receives Authorization

Microsoft's Azure Government Top Secret cloud received authorisation making it available to US national security agencies. The solution is positioned as Microsoft’s most secure cloud infrastructure. It complies with Intelligence Community Directive 705, which calls for sensitive compartmented information facilities to meet uniform physical and technical security requirements.

Corporate vice president of Azure Global Tom Keane explained in a blog that 60 different services are available through the service, with features including Azure Data Lake and Azure Cognitive Services available in the secure environment. “These services help human analysts more rapidly extract intelligence, identify trends and anomalies, broaden perspectives, and find new insights“, Keane said.

The US Department of Defence recently cancelled a $10 billion contract awarded to Microsoft, planning a retender with the company and Amazon Web Services (AWS), which had previously contested the deal. Last week multiple news outlets reported AWS won a separate $10 billion contract from the US National Security Agency, which Microsoft protested.