Microsoft Building a Government-Specific Office 365 Cloud

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“Today we offer our customers the choice between Office 365 public or private cloud solutions hosted in a dedicated ITAR or multi-tenant environment. We’re also committed to delivering a government community cloud for our US customers,” wrote VP of Microsoft Public Sector Curt Kolcun in the blog.

In plainer terms, Microsoft is planning on a building a separate, dedicated hardware environment to host Office 365 for government agencies, according to a statement given to NetworkWorld by a Microsoft spokesperson. This distinct facility will be designed to meet ardent FISMA and FedRAMP requirements for government clouds. And the existing Microsoft Office 365 offerings already meet more generalized standards, including ISO 27001, SSAE 16 and HIPAA.

Kolcun’s blog entry holds the company line when it comes to the cloud: No, the cloud isn’t right for everyone, but Microsoft is all about choice. If you’re a government agency and you want to move to the cloud, Microsoft is committed to providing that option. And that includes meeting changing requirements.

Microsoft vs. Google is really the cloud battle to watch across both the private and public sectors, and needless to say that it’s heating up. TalkinCloud will track Microsoft’s play for government dominance as it develops, so stay tuned.