Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Recently, I’ve had a number of customers question whether their organization requires Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC).

We have a straight forward guide around determining whether GCC is required – and whether an organization is even eligible to obtain a GCC tenant.

Determine whether your organization needs Microsoft 365 Government – GCC and meets eligibility requirements.

The Microsoft 365 Government – GCC environment provides compliance with US government requirements for cloud services, including FedRAMP Moderate, and requirements for criminal justice and federal tax information systems (CJI and FTI data types).

In addition to enjoying the features and capabilities of Microsoft 365, organizations benefit from the following features that are unique to Microsoft 365 Government – GCC:

• Your organization’s customer content is logically segregated from customer content in the commercial Microsoft 365 services from Microsoft.
• Your organization’s customer content is stored within the United States.
• Access to your organization’s customer content is restricted to screened Microsoft personnel.
• Microsoft 365 Government – GCC complies with certifications and accreditations that are required for US Public Sector customers.

You can find more information about the Microsoft 365 Government – GCC offering for US Government customers at Microsoft 365 Government plans, including eligibility requirements.

The Microsoft 365 US Government service description describes the platform’s benefits, which are centered around meeting compliance requirements within the United States.

You might want to transfer the tables of information in the service description into an Excel workbook and add two columns: Relevant for my organization Y/N and Meets the needs of my organization Y/N. Then you can review this list with your colleagues to confirm that this service meets your organization’s needs.

More information is available at

• Microsoft 365 Government – GCC deployments – Microsoft Teams
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/plan-for-government-gcc
• Office 365 US Government – Service Descriptions
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-365-platform-service-description/office-365-us-government/office-365-us-government
• Office 365 GCC – Service Descriptions
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-365-platform-service-description/office-365-us-government/gcc