Microsoft adds Teams to cloud lineup
The latest government cloud updates integrate Microsoft services across high-impact environments.
Just a year after launching its cloud-based Microsoft 365 Government, the software and cloud giant is expanding its offerings.
Microsoft Teams, the company's collaboration platform, is now available in the Government Community Cloud (GCC) High and Department of Defense environments. The chat-based workspace integrates Office 365 services, including emails, meetings, calls, files and apps, such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Word and Excel.
Teams has been available on the GCC, but it now available for high-impact and DOD workloads, giving agencies another option for meeting security and compliance requirements.
Other product announcements include Power Platform for Government, which will incorporate Power BI, PowerApps and Flow. Dynamics 365 Government Customer Engagement is now available for high-impact data (up to impact level 4) in the GCC. The company also said agencies using Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection for GCC will get capabilities that automate investigation and remediation of email threats.
These and the company's recent cloud offerings are part of Microsoft’s efforts to differentiate itself from competitors as the government and DOD in particular look for ways to modernize their IT infrastructure and move more applications to the cloud.
A major procurement on the horizon is the $8.2 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solution contract to put DOD’s email, calendar collaboration services into the cloud. On the surface, Microsoft Teams would seem to be tailor-made for DEOS.
A draft request for quotations came out in late January and a final solicitation could be out by the end of March.
Microsoft declined to comment directly about DEOS, but a spokesman cited the company's 40-year relationship with DOD and a track record of bringing solution to the military.
"These offerings (Microsoft Teams) are just one further step we're making in helping to meet their diverse set of mission goals as they look to move to the cloud," the spokesman said.
This article was first posted to Washington Technology, a sibling site to GCN.