Microsoft is working with federal customers to explore how the Azure platform could work in a government-only cloud computing environment, GCN reported Wednesday.
John Moore writes Microsoft has launched a series of private previews of its Azure U.S. Government Cloud and is slated to roll out the service this year.
Susie Adams, Microsoft’s federal chief technology adviser, said the goal is to create functional equivalence between the government cloud offering and the commercial version, according to GCN.
Adams added that Microsoft will host the new service from data centers managed by government-authorized personnel, Moore reports
The company designed Azure to operate with Linux and Windows virtual machines, as well as work to help users build and manage cloud applications, according to the report.
Moore writes the Azure package also includes storage, identity and access management, data backup and recovery features.