What is Azure Government?

January 03, 2021

1 min read

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Microsoft Azure Government delivers a cloud platform built upon the foundational principles of security, privacy and control, compliance, and transparency. Public Sector entities receive a physically isolated instance of Microsoft Azure that employs world-class security and compliance services critical to U.S. government for all systems and applications built on its architecture.

US government agencies or their partners interested in cloud services that meet government security and compliance requirements, can be confident that Microsoft Azure Government provides world-class security, protection, and compliance services. Azure Government delivers a dedicated 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:

Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800.171 Defense Industrial Base (DIB)
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1075
Department of Defense (DoD) L4
Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS)

In order to provide you with the highest level of security and compliance, Azure Government uses physically isolated datacenters and networks (located in U.S. only).

Azure Government customers (US federal, state, and local government or their partners) are subject to validation of eligibility. If there is a question about eligibility for Azure Government, you should consult your account team.