Jane Edwards
Terry Halvorsen, chief information officer of the Defense Department, has committed 4 million seats in the department’s efforts to upgrade its information systems and devices to the Microsoft-built Windows 10 operating system.
Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for Windows and devices group at Microsoft, writes in a blog entry posted Wednesday that the move aims to help DoD reduce information technology costs and improve IT processes.
Halvorsen said in a November 2015 memo that he expects the Pentagon to standardize and complete the Windows 10 OS deployment within a year in an effort to safeguard networks from cyber threats, Microsoft Federal CTO Susie Adams wrote in a separate article posted Wednesday.
Microsoft also announced that it secured the National Information Assurance Program certification for the new OS.
Microsoft’s Surface family of laptops and mobile devices also received certification from the Defense Information Systems Agency after the products met DoD’s interoperability and security requirements for inclusion in the Unified Capabilities Approved Products List.
Windows 10 has the Enterprise Data Protection tool, Windows Hello for multi-factor authentication as well as the Windows Defender service and Secure Boot designed to protect data systems from malware.
