Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Here’s a summary of what exactly Office 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) is:

• ONLY ELIGIBLE CUSTOMERS: GCC cloud instances require passing a qualification process & are only available to eligible customers which include United States Federal, State, Local, and Tribal governments, as well as contractors holding or processing data on behalf of the US Government.

• FEDRAMP: Designed to support Federal Risk & Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) “High” accreditation

• Some US organizations are required to comply with FedRAMP for government community compliance)

• SCREENED PERSONNEL: Anyone needing temporary permissions elevation to access must pass a dizzying array of background checks as illustrated in the table to the right.
• NO VIVA ENGAGE: By default, Viva Engage is not available to GCC customer.  They can obtain Viva Engage (with a contract addendum) but must understand & “sign off” that Viva Engage is not operated in the GCC enclave & is not FedRAMP compliant.
• SUPPORT: Office 365 support personnel are not included in the service accreditation boundary for FedRAMP, IRS 1075 or CJIS data handling compliance assurances.

KEY REFERENCES FOR OFFICE 365 GCC:

• Office 365 GCC – Service Descriptions
• Download a full government plan comparison table for Office 365 GCC here