Introduction to Microsoft Azure Government Secret

by Contributed | Jan 8, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is only to call attention to Microsoft’s new cloud service (Azure Government Secret), highlight its public features/services, and provide general guidance for those Microsoft customers who are eligible to use these new services. For more in-depth information, training, advanced materials or customer-ready materials, please use the resources and links at the end of this article to get started.

To speak with a Microsoft representative about Microsoft Azure Government fill out this contact form.

To verify eligibility, complete the eligibility form and Microsoft will contact you within 2 business days to talk about the next steps.

Overview

Azure Government Secret (US) was developed with the same principles and architecture as Microsoft’s commercial cloud solutions. This new solution; however, is built exclusively in support of US agencies and partners working with data classified at the U.S. Secret classification level. It is enhanced for maintaining the security and integrity of these classified workloads without compromising the speed of access to sensitive, mission-critical information.

Highlights

Azure Government Secret was given Provisional Authorization (PA) at Department of Defense Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 with facilities at ICD 705, and it provides a broad range of commercial innovation for classified workloads.

Technical

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)


• Platform as a Service (PaaS)


• Software as a Service (SaaS)


• Marketplace solutions
  
  

Institutional

• Over twenty years of experience working across classified networks to support critical customer missions.


• Microsoft is committed to meeting the needs of government across the spectrum of data classifications, while providing your agency with specialized cloud services and best-in-class security.

Connectivity

Connect securely and natively to classified networks, or leverage options for private, resilient, high-bandwidth connectivity using ExpressRoute and ExpressRoute Direct. All methods utilize Azure networking technologies, delivering high-speed communications within the Continental U.S. (CONUS) back to exclusive datacenters over a private network.

Direct connection

Natively available for agencies with direct connections through US government classified networks.

ExpressRoute

Extend your on-premises networks into Azure Government Secret regions over a private connection facilitated by a connectivity provider with ExpressRoute can be used to extend the on-premises network of the organization.

ExpressRoute Direct

Allows connectivity directly into Azure Government Secret locations.

Regions

Bring your data to the cloud with confidence using dedicated regions, built for US Secret classified workloads and operated by cleared US citizens under the broadest compliance certifications available.

• FedRAMP Moderate and High provisional authorizations meet DoD compliance standards at Impact Levels 2, 4, 5, and NIST 800-171 controls satisfy DFARS and ITAR requirements.


• Three regions for Azure Government Secret provide the DoD Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Intelligence Community Directive (ICD 503) accreditation with facilities at ICD 705.


• Azure Government Secret delivers across three dedicated regions located over 500 miles apart for required geodiversity.

Services

Take advantage of cloud capabilities including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and marketplace offerings. Below are some of the services that are supported by Azure Government Secret. For a complete, up-to-date list, visit Azure Government Services by Audit Scope

Compute

• Virtual Machine Scale Sets


• Functions


• VMs: Av2, B, DSv3, DSv2, Dv2, Dv3, ESv3, Ev3, FS, NCv3


• Cloud Services


• Service Fabric


• Container Register


• VMs Instance Level IPs


• VMs Reserved IP


• Batch


• Web Apps
  
  

Storage

• Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2


• Managed Disks


• Disk Storage


• Storage Queues


• Hot/Cool Blob Storage


• Storage Tables
  
  

Networking

• Application Gateway


• Virtual WAN


• ExpressRoute


• Traffic Manager


• VPN Gateway


• Azure DNS


• Virtual Network


• Load Balancer
  
  

Analytics

• Event Hubs


• Azure Data Explorer


• Azure Cosmos DB


• Redis Cache


• Azure SQL
  
  

Management Tools

• Azure Portal


• Service Bus


• Azure Resource Manager (ARM)


• Network Watcher


• Azure Service Manager (RDFE)


• Logic Apps


• Azure Backup
  
  

Security + Identity

• Azure Active Directory


• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)


• Azure Key Vault


• Microsoft Graph
  
  

Trusted Microsoft Partners

Microsoft’s approved AOS-G Partner network for specialized government cloud computing services.

• Accenture Federal Service


• Agile IT, Inc


• American Technical Services


• Applied Information Sciences


• Arctic Information Technology, Inc.


• C3 Integrated Solutions, Inc.


• Catapult Systems, LLC


• CGI Federal Inc.


• Cloud Navigator, Inc – formerly ISC


• Dox Electornics Inc.


• F1 Soluitions Inc


• Four Points Technolgy, LLC


• KTL Solutions, Inc.


• LiftOff LLC


• Permuta Technologies, Inc.


• Planet Technologies, Inc.


• Quiet Professionals, LLC


• Smartronix


• SAIC


• Summit 7 Services, Inc.


• TechTrend, Inc


• VLCM


• VC3

Links/Resources

Azure Government for National Security ​

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/government/national-security/

Azure Government Secret Datasheet

https://azure.microsoft.com/mediahandler/files/resourcefiles/azure-government-secret-datasheet/Azure%20Gov%20Secret%20Datasheet.pdf

Azure Government Documentation

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-government/

Azure Government Blog​

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azuregov/

AOSG Partner List ​

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-government/documentation-government-csp-list#approved-aos-g-partners

Microsoft Trust Center

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trust-center/?rtc=1

Azure Government Validation

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/government/request/?ReqType=General

Changing Azure Service Fabric API version for ARM template deployment

by Contributed | Jan 8, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Creating a new cluster with latest API version : 

If you create a service fabric cluster currently it takes the API version as 2018-02-01 as of today. 

while deploying the ARM template you can change it to latest version available prior to deploying via Azure portal or Visual Studio or Azure Dev ops. 

You can find the latest version at : Microsoft.ServiceFabric/clusters – ARM template reference | Microsoft Docs

OLD : 

NEW : 

Update an existing cluster with latest API version : 

If you have the previous template available you can redeploy only the Service Fabric resource with required API version or get template from the deployment section of your resource group otherwise simply you can pull the latest template with https://resources.azure.com 

Navigate to your subscription by expanding subscriptions -> <Your Subscription> -> resourceGroups -> <Your Resource Group> -> providers -> Microsoft.ServiceFabric -> clusters -> <Your Cluster Name>

Copy the template  

Create a new custom deployment template and deploy via Azure portal or powershell/ VS with making the changes for the API version.

Important note for the template copied via Azure Resource Explorer make sure your remove the etag and cross verify your existing Fabric setting applied or update any setting want to apply which requires latest API version and not able to perform via Azure Resource Explorer. 

Then you can deploy the changes.