Microsoft announces expansion of Azure Government regions

Microsoft today announced significant advancements for their Government Cloud. Microsoft Azure Government is a government-community cloud that offers hyperscale compute, storage, networking, and identity management services, with world-class security. A physical and network-isolated instance of Microsoft Azure, operated by screened U.S. persons, Azure Government enables new forms of cross-agency collaboration and rich cloud service integration. They are expanding Azure Government regions to Arizona and Texas. They also confirmed that physically isolated version of Azure Government specifically for the DoD will be available in preview starting in November.

• Department of Defense-specific Azure Government. Starting in November, physically isolated version of Azure Government specifically for the Department of Defense (DoD) will be available in preview followed quickly with general availability. These regions will also connect to Department of Defense (DoD) networks via Microsoft Express Route.
• DoD Information Impact Level 5. This version of Azure is built from the ground up to meet DoD Impact Level 5 controls. DoD agencies and companies managing controlled information will be able to use Azure Government for Department of Defense National Security System data. Azure Government is on track to achieve a DoD Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization.
• Two additional Azure Government regions in the South West and South Central United States. They are expanding Azure Government from new regions in Arizona and Texas. Slated to be generally available in 2017, the new regions will add to their existing regions in Virginia and Iowa and are new additions beyond the Department of Defense regions mentioned above. Now, Azure has a total of six dedicated regions for government customers – more than any other cloud provider.

Read more about these announcements here.