California Justice Department, Microsoft sign historic deal
Microsoft and the California Department of Justice signed an agreement earlier this month that confirms Microsoft’s Office 365 meets the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Justice Information System Security Policy requirements.
By meeting these standards, California law enforcement agencies can use Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud to handle sensitive CJIS data, which has certain strict parameters that must be met to be stored in a cloud solution.
“This is an important milestone for the State of California where cities from San Diego to San Jose and Oakland, and counties like Santa Clara and San Mateo, are all moving their productivity workloads to the cloud with Microsoft. And more are on their way,” Michael Donlan, Microsoft’s vice president of U.S. state and local, wrote on the company’s blog.
Donlan said more cities are coming on like the City of Long Beach whose city council recently voted to go with Office 365, noting that Microsoft meets unique public safety requirements.
Governments have unique and rigorous requirements for regulatory compliance around security and privacy that require vendors to make deep investments in these areas. Previously, the City of Los Angeles attributed the failed deployment of Google Apps at the LAPD to the service’s inability to meet CJIS regulations.
Cities and counties in California who use Office 365 will join a growing list of other government organizations from the U.S. The Agriculture Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to states like Minnesota and California and cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
