Microsoft's new Azure Government Top Secret can handle highly classified data

What you need to know

• Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Government Top Secret
• Azure Government Top Secret has over 60 initial services and has more on the way.
• The service meets several standards that allow it to handle information classified as top secret by the U.S. government.

Microsoft announced today that Azure Government Top Secret is now generally available. The Azure post announcing the news explains that people across the Intelligence Community (IC), Department of Defense (DoD), and Federal Civilian will be able to use the new service with data at all classifications. Azure Government Top Secret launched with more than 60 services, and it will gain more in the future.

Microsoft states that it has "achieved the Authorization to Operate (ATO) of Azure Government Top Secret infrastructure in accordance with Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 and facilities accredited to meet the ICD 705 standards."

The company goes on to explain that "These new air-gapped regions of Azure will accelerate the delivery of national security workloads classified at the US Top Secret level."

In addition to Azure Government Top Secret, Microsoft has Azure Government and Azure Government Secret. The company also has the Azure public cloud for non-government organizations.

Mission owners can use a variety of Microsoft services, including Azure Security Center and Azure Sentinel, to secure data. These services can be used to manage data stored on-premises or in other clouds. Azure Security Center and Azure Sentinel are now available in Azure Government for all data classifications.

Microsoft also announced Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Functions, and Azure App Service, which are new services in Azure Government Top Secret.

Azure Government Top Secret was first announced in December 2020 (via ZDNet).