Azure Government and Its Differences from Commercial Azure

• Azure Government offers security and certifications on an isolated cloud for U.S. government agencies and partners.
• It is now available in three levels of security enforcement, addressing needs of agencies with different confidentiality requirements.
• It differs from commercial Azure in services and features offered and some development and administration processes, although the two could be used together.

Azure Government continues to gain support for services and features offered in commercial Azure (Microsoft’s public multitenant cloud, sometimes called global Azure or public Azure). Secret and Top Secret security levels have arrived to support stricter enforcement required for some agencies and solutions. However, customers should be aware of Azure Government’s differences from commercial Azure, especially if they have experience with the latter or are using the two simultaneously.

(There are also Microsoft 365 services for U.S. government agency customers, but the Microsoft 365 services levels do not map directly to the three levels of Azure Government services. Eligible customers should evaluate the Microsoft 365 and Azure offerings separately to determine which are appropriate to deploy.)