Microsoft rolls out rugged Azure edge device
Connecting state and local government leaders
The 10-pound, ruggedized version of its Azure Data Box Edge brings battery-powered Azure cloud services to the tactical edge for the military or first responders.
At the Microsoft Government Leaders Summit, the company unveiled a 10-pound, ruggedized version of its Azure Data Box Edge. The battery-powered unit brings Azure cloud services to the tactical edge, allowing users to transfer data to and from the Azure cloud.
The new version easily fits in a backpack and can be carried to remote and disconnected areas and still tap artificial intelligence and machine learning services from the cloud for analyzing text, images or drone video, as well as search, text translation and computer vision that can extract text out of image files and handwriting.
Microsoft partnered with Klas Telecom on this new form-factor, which meets MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STG-461 standards.
Other recent announcements include:
The Teams collaboration platform has been updated to include Teams Phone Systems and Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Government Community Cloud (GCC) High and Department of Defense environments starting mid-October.
A number of applications have been added to the GCC High environment, including Power Apps and Flow. By the end of this calendar year, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Government for DoD will also be available.
Chat for Dynamics 365 is now generally available in GCC environments.
A collaboration between Microsoft and Sequoia Holdings will offer a cloud emulation services so users can test and identify issues that could prevent an application from running in a classified Azure region.
A built-in Blueprint for FedRAMP is available to help software vendors comply with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management program.
A government-specific version of Microsoft's AI Business School, an initiative to help business leaders take advantage of AI, is now available. The new module focuses on identifying governing practices for responsible AI in government and includes tools to support responsible AI and make AI governance both tangible and measurable.
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