Microsoft announces upcoming Office 365 Government Secret cloud

Microsoft has been working with the US Government to provide Secret and Top Secret Azure clouds for use by the Department of Defense and other critical government agencies, and today it’s announcing that it will soon provide an Office 365 Government Secret cloud, which is currently pending review, and is expected to become available later this year.

Microsoft has built out both Azure and Office 365 to meet a full spectrum of government needs for secure cloud environments, serving everything from State and local governments to Federal Government Partners who need to meet security compliance restrictions, all the way up to the Department of Defense. Microsoft is working closely with the government to provide a secure infrastructure:

This new environment will run the latest enterprise-grade Office 365 Government productivity, security, compliance, and collaboration applications. We have a comprehensive approach to build, test, onboard, and audit our products to be compliant with government regulations, which will help ensure security and compliance for the environments. We work to drive efficiencies internally and with government regulatory bodies to help improve the timeliness of products to market.

Microsoft was embroiled in a fight with Amazon over a winner take all JEDI contract with the Department of Defense, with the DoD ultimately pulling back and rethinking its cloud strategies after awarding the company the contract only to have Amazon loudly complain about improprieties. Still, the company continues to build out its offerings for government and defense as it competes head to head with Amazon.