San Diego, CA, August 16, 2018, – Microsoft has authorized Managed Solution to resell Microsoft Office 365 Government Community Cloud to US government organizations. Furthermore, Managed Solution has been priorly authorized to resale Government Azure Cloud, which enables it to fully serve US Federal, state, and local government agencies in their governmental capacities by providing full service cloud offerings. 

Office 365 Government Community Cloud is designed for the unique needs of US government organizations. This solution provides all the features and capabilities of Office 365 services in a segmented cloud environment that helps organizations meet US compliance and security standards.

Azure Government delivers a dedicated US based cloud enabling government agencies and their partners to transform mission-critical workloads to the cloud. Azure Government services handle data that is subject to certain government regulations and requirements. In order to ensure the highest level of security and compliance, Azure Government uses physically isolated data centers and networks, located in the US only.

Jennell Mott, VP of Cloud & Vendor Operations, Managed Solution: “ Being authorized as a re-seller for Microsoft Office 365 Government Community Cloud and Azure Government means that we are able to provide full service cloud solutions and offerings for our Government customers with the backing of Microsoft’s full compliance regulations.”

About Managed Solution

As a relationship-driven organization, Managed Solution collaborates with you to customize the perfect mix of software, hardware, and IT services. We deliver a flexible technology solution that evolves and adapts to meet your needs and exceed your expectations at every stage of your business cycle.

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Eight new service offerings added to Azure Government certification scope

Written by Derek Strausbaugh as seen on blogs.msdn.microsoft.com

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 Federal, DoD and state and local government customers and partners building solutions on Azure Government who are required to meet rigorous compliance standards such as FedRAMP High, DISA L4, CJIS, ITAR, and IRS 1075.   The Azure Blueprint program is designed to facilitate the secure and compliant use of these and other Azure Government service offerings by providing solution accelerators and guidance concerning customer security responsibilities when architecting solutions in Azure.

About these services

Azure Resource Manager – Azure Resource Manager (ARM) enables you to repeatedly deploy your app and have confidence your resources are deployed in a consistent state. You define the infrastructure and dependencies for your app in a single declarative template. This template is flexible enough to use for all of your environments such as test, staging or production.

You put resources with a common lifecycle into a resource group that can be deployed or deleted in a single action. You can see which resources are linked by a dependency. You can apply tags to resources to categorize them for management tasks, such as billing as well as control who in the organization can perform actions on the resources by defining roles for users and groups.  ARM logs all user actions so you can audit those actions.

Automation – Azure Automation uses Windows PowerShell scripts and workflows – known as runbooks – to handle the creation, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of Azure resources and third-party applications.  Automation runbooks work with Web Apps in Azure App Service, Azure Virtual Machines (Windows or Linux), Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, and any service that offers public Internet APIs.

Azure Batch – Azure Batch makes it easy to run large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads in Azure. Use Batch to scale out parallel workloads, manage the execution of tasks in a queue, and cloud-enable applications to offload compute jobs to the cloud.

Log Analytics – Log Analytics is a service in Operations Management Suite that helps you collect and analyze data generated by resources in your cloud and on-premises environments. It gives you real-time insights using integrated search and custom dashboards to readily analyze millions of records across all of your workloads and servers regardless of their physical location.

Azure Media Services – Azure Media Services offers broadcast-quality video streaming services to reach larger audiences on today’s most popular mobile devices. With features that enhance accessibility, distribution, and scalability, Media Services makes it easy and cost-effective to stream and protect your content to audiences both local and worldwide.

Policy Administration Service/RBAC – Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) enables fine-grained access management for Azure. Using RBAC, you can grant only the amount of access that users need to perform their jobs.

Redis Cache – Based on the popular open source Redis cache—Redis Cache gives you access to a secure, dedicated cache for your Azure application usage.  It leverages the low-latency, high-throughput capabilities of the Redis engine. This separate, distributed cache layer allows your data tier to scale independently for more efficient use of compute resources in your application layer.

Scheduler – Azure Scheduler lets you invoke actions that call HTTP/S endpoints or post messages to a storage queue on any schedule. You can use Scheduler to create jobs that reliably call services either inside or outside of Azure and run those jobs on demand, on a regular or irregular schedule, or at a future date.

Azure is dedicated to expanding the number of offerings available to government customers and will continue to provide updates through our blog as well as adding covered offerings to the Microsoft Trust Center.

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On October 14, 2015, Tom Keane Partner Director, Program Management of Microsoft Azure announced further momentum with new capabilities on Microsoft Azure Government that help customers leverage the cloud to deliver hybrid applications and business continuity. They released five new capabilities for Azure Government customers:
•Azure Backup
•Azure ExpressRoute
•Azure Resource Manager
•Azure Redis Cache
•Azure Automation

Since our launch ten months ago, hundreds of government customers in state and local, federal civilian and defense, plus over a hundred solution partners with dedicated government practices, have adopted Azure Government and these five new capabilities to expand on the innovation available to support their cloud requirements. This combination of new services combined with the largest set of compliance certifications in the industry give customers and partners the ability to do amazing things with Azure government. As said by one of our customers:

“The fact that Microsoft contractually committed to CJIS compliance by signing the FBI’s CJIS Security Addendum and having their employees background-checked by California DOJ helped give the LAPD the confidence that we could begin to leverage Azure Government for our most critical, sensitive workloads,” says Sanjoy Datta, information security officer, LAPD. “It is rare that vendors, on their own initiative, take the trouble to comply with the multiple regulatory frameworks that law enforcement, as well as all state and local government agencies, are required to meet. Microsoft has exceeded the LAPD's expectations in this regard by taking on the difficult requirements of the CJIS regulatory regime and meeting them head-on.”

Highlighting another customer success story of Azure Government and our compliance investments, Scott Shainman, president of Getac North America, worked with the Memphis Police Department to build a secure, scalable, mission-critical police video solution:

"The partnership of Getac's Veretos in-car video system and the Azure Government Cloud allows our customers to have the best secure data management and mobile video capture. Memphis Police Department is pursuing robust data driven policing and saw that Azure Government provides a contractual commitment to the CJIS Security Policy and easy integration with SQL Server - which the Getac software runs on - it gave them the assurance that this was the best solution for them," said Shainman.

Here are more details on the new capabilities we are announcing today for Azure Government:

Azure Backup

Azure Backup delivers an efficient and secure way for you to protect on-premises and on-cloud assets to Azure, and benefits from Azure Government’s physical isolation and support from cleared U.S. persons. Benefits include:
•Back-up for various workloads like SQL Server, SharePoint, Exchange, Hyper-V VM, Windows Servers and Windows Clients.
•Data encryption before it leaves your premises. This encrypted backup data is transmitted securely using HTTPS protocol and stored in an encrypted manner in the Azure Government cloud.
•Data is stored in highly resilient storage, up to six copies in two Azure Government cloud datacenters, geographically distributed more than 500 hundred miles apart providing true geographic redundancy and support for the continuity of your business.

Azure ExpressRoute

With Azure ExpressRoute you can create private, high-throughput connections between Azure Government datacenters and your existing infrastructure. Azure Government ExpressRoute connections do not go over the public Internet, and they offer more reliability, faster speeds, lower latencies, and higher security than typical connections over the Internet. What this means to you:
•A physically separate instance of ExpressRoute deployed specifically for Azure Government. This means that we have extended our Government cloud commitments from our datacenter, to neutral edge locations to provide the predictable performance and higher throughput of ExpressRoute, combined with the physical isolation that United States government customers demand.
•Initial Azure Government ExpressRoute Meet-Me sites are in Washington DC and Chicago vicinities. These locations provide dedicated connectivity to both U.S. Gov. Iowa and U.S. Gov. Virginia datacenters.

Azure Resource Manager (preview)

Azure Resource Manager allows you to simplify how you manage your app resources, including being able to:
•Deploy and update a group of resources, repeatedly.
•Manage permissions on a group of resources.
•Visualize a group of resources in a logical view, including monitoring or billing.
•Define the infrastructure and dependencies for your app in a single declarative template.

Azure Redis Cache (preview)

Azure Redis Cache provides access to a secured, dedicated Redis cache, managed by Microsoft. Accessible from any application within Azure Government, Azure Redis Cache helps your application become more responsive even as user load increases by leveraging the low latency, high-throughput capabilities of the Redis engine.

Azure Automation (preview)

With Azure Automation, you can automate frequent, time-consuming, and error-prone cloud management tasks. You can also:
•Create, monitor, manage, and deploy resources in Azure Government using runbooks, based upon Windows PowerShell workflows.
•Use Automation runbooks, which work with the Web Apps feature in Azure App Service, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Microsoft SQL Server, and other popular Azure services, with any service offering public Internet application programming interfaces (APIs).
•Create checkpoints to resume your workflow after unexpected errors, crashes and network issues.

Looking to the future

We are listening to you and continue to regularly expand the set of capabilities in Azure Government.

--Tom

Azure for Government: Powering Innovation and Security in the Public Sector

In today’s digital landscape, government agencies face the dual challenge of meeting the growing demands of citizens while ensuring the highest levels of security and compliance. Enter Microsoft Azure for Government—a dedicated cloud service tailored specifically for the public sector, offering unmatched capabilities to drive innovation, efficiency, and security.

What is Azure for Government?

Azure for government is a cloud platform designed exclusively for U.S. government agencies and their partners. Built on the foundation of Microsoft's Azure public cloud, Azure for Government offers a unique environment with additional security, compliance, and certification measures. This specialized cloud service is hosted in separate data centers in the United States, operated by screened U.S. citizens, and adheres to strict government regulations, including FedRAMP, DoD, and CJIS requirements.

Why Azure for Government?

1. Unparalleled Security and Compliance
   • Security: Azure provides government agencies with advanced security features, including multi-layered protection, encryption, and identity management. With over 90 compliance certifications, Azure for Government meets the stringent requirements of federal, state, and local government bodies.
   • Compliance: Azure adheres to rigorous compliance standards such as FedRAMP High, ITAR, IRS 1075, and NIST 800-171, ensuring that sensitive data is protected and managed according to federal mandates.
2. Dedicated Infrastructure
   • Azure operates in physically isolated data centers that are separate from Microsoft’s commercial cloud. This ensures that government data is handled with the highest levels of control and oversight, providing agencies with the confidence that their information is safe and secure.
3. Advanced Analytics and AI Capabilities
   • Government agencies can leverage Azure’s advanced analytics and AI tools to gain insights from vast amounts of data. Whether it’s predicting traffic patterns, analyzing health data, or improving disaster response, Azure for Government helps agencies make informed decisions with the power of AI and machine learning.
4. Cost Efficiency
   • Access a pay-as-you-go model, allowing agencies to scale their resources according to their needs without the upfront costs associated with traditional IT infrastructure. This flexible pricing model helps governments optimize their budgets while ensuring they have the tools necessary to serve the public effectively.
5. Interoperability and Hybrid Flexibility
   • Azure for Government supports a wide range of programming languages, tools, and frameworks, enabling government agencies to seamlessly integrate legacy systems with modern cloud solutions. Additionally, Azure’s hybrid capabilities allow for the integration of on-premises resources with cloud services, offering a cohesive environment for managing data and applications.

Use Cases: Empowering Government Agencies

• Healthcare: Azure for Government enables public health agencies to manage and analyze large datasets securely, improving patient care, public health responses, and research outcomes.
• Defense and Intelligence: With Azure’s secure environment, defense and intelligence agencies can process and analyze classified information while maintaining compliance with national security standards.
• Law Enforcement:  Azure helps law enforcement agencies store, manage, and analyze data related to criminal investigations, enhancing public safety and improving case management.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Government Cloud Computing

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the needs of government agencies. Microsoft is committed to ensuring that Azure for Government remains at the forefront of innovation, providing the tools and services necessary to address the challenges of tomorrow. From AI-driven insights to quantum computing, Azure for Government is poised to empower agencies to serve their communities more effectively and securely.

Conclusion

Azure for Government is more than just a cloud platform—it’s a catalyst for transformation within the public sector. By providing government agencies with secure, compliant, and innovative solutions, Azure enables the public sector to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world while safeguarding the privacy and security of citizens.

Whether you’re a federal agency, a state government, or a local municipality, Azure for Government offers the tools you need to drive efficiency, enhance security, and deliver better services to the public.