Microsoft Launches Office 365 Government Secret Cloud to Handle Classified Data

Cloud Computing

Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Office 365 Government Secret service. The new cloud SKU supports Impact Level 6 (IL6) and helps to meet the security and compliance requirements of the US government agencies and partners that manage classified data.

Microsoft first unveiled Office 365 Government Secret back in March 2022. At that time, the new offering was under the US government accreditation reviews, and the company planned to release it in the second half of 2022. Office 365 Government Secret joins the existing family of Azure clouds available to government customers, including Azure Government Secret and Top Secret clouds.

Microsoft touts that the new SKU delivers the security capabilities required for highly-sensitive operations. It offers a secure infrastructure to support the data processing needs of the Department of Defense (DoD), US Federal Civilian, Intelligence Community (IC), and US government partners.

Microsoft Launches Office 365 Government Secret Cloud to Handle Classified Data

Office 365 Government Secret an Impact Level 6 (IL6) environment

Microsoft’s new Office 365 Government Secret provides access to its secret productivity software-as-a-service apps, such as Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps. Moreover, it helps government customers to meet the Level 6 (IL 6) criteria. The top classification level ensures that mission-critical workload is kept separate from non-DoD tenants.

“Coupled with the availability of Azure Government Secret and Top Secret, national security mission leaders can use the full cloud experience to not only establish an infrastructure platform to collect, process, and operationalize data, but to enable cloud-based collaboration and communication in the classified environment,” said Paul Lorimer, CVP for Office 365 Enterprise and Cloud Engineering.

Microsoft suggests that customers who plan to deploy Office 365 Government Secret should contact Microsoft’s onboarding teams and mission support partners. The company recommends government agencies to engage with Microsoft Consulting Services, Microsoft FastTrack, and other deployment partners to design a successful implementation plan.