Azure Databricks Now Generally Available in Azure Government

We are excited to announce that Azure Databricks is now generally available (GA) in Microsoft's Azure Government (MAG) region, enabling new data and AI use cases for federal agencies, state and local governments, public universities, and government contractors to enable faster decisions, more accurate predictions, and unified and collaborative data analytics. More than a dozen federal agencies are building cloud data lakes and are looking to use Delta Lake for reliability. Azure Databricks is FedRAMP High authorized in the Microsoft Azure GovCloud regions. Additionally, DoD Impact Level 5 authorization is in progress and expected in the coming months.

Proven analytics and AI at scale

Azure Databricks is trusted by organizations such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Transportation (DOT), DC Water, Unilever, Daimler, Credit Suisse, Starbucks, AstraZeneca, McKesson, ExxonMobil, and H&R Block for mission-critical data and AI use cases. Databricks maintains the highest level of data security by incorporating industry leading best practices into our cloud computing security program. Azure Government general availability provides customers the assurance that Azure Databricks is designed to meet United States Government security and compliance requirements to support sensitive analytics and data science use cases. Azure Government is a gold standard among public sector organizations and their partners who are modernizing their approach to information security and privacy.

Enabling government agencies and partners to accelerate innovation on Azure Government

"At Veterans Affairs, we included Azure Databricks as part of our Microsoft Azure Authority to Operate (ATO)," said Joseph Fourcade, Lead Cyber Security Analyst, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO). "When Databricks received FedRAMP High approval, we were able to move quickly to inherit that same Azure ATO and approve Azure Databricks for production workloads. Timing couldn't have been better, as we have been working with a number of VA customers implementing Databricks for critical programs."

"Numerous federal agencies are looking to build cloud data lakes and leverage Delta Lake for a complete and consistent view of all their data," said Kevin Davis, VP, Public Sector at Databricks. "The power of data and AI are being used to dramatically enhance public services, lower costs and improve quality of life for citizens. Using Azure Databricks, government agencies have aggregated hundreds of data sources to improve citizen outreach, automated processing of hourly utility infrastructure IoT data for enabled predictive maintenance, deployed machine learning models to predict patient needs, and built dashboards to predict transportation needs and optimize logistics. FedRAMP High authorization for Azure Databricks further enables federal agencies to analyze all of their data for improved decision making and more accurate predictions."

High Impact data are frequently stored and processed in emergency services systems, financial systems, department of defense and healthcare systems. Azure Databricks enables government agencies and their contractors to analyze public records data such as tax history, financial records, welfare and healthcare claims to improve processing times, reduce operating costs, and reduce claims fraud. In addition, government agencies and contractors are taking a data-driven approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and are analyzing large geospatial datasets from GPS satellites, cell towers, ships and autonomous platforms for marine mammal and fish population assessments, highway construction, disaster relief, and population health. State and local governments who utilize federal data also depend on Azure Government to ensure they meet these high standards of security and compliance.

Learn more about Azure Government and Azure Databricks

You can learn more about Azure Databricks and Azure Government by visiting the Azure Government website, see the full list of Azure services available in Azure Government, compare Azure Government and global Azure and read Microsoft's Azure Government documentation here.

Get started with Azure Databricks by joining the Azure Databricks Government Forum and future Azure Databricks events. Continue your learning with this free, 3-part training series. Learn more about Azure Databricks security best practices by reading this blog post.

As always, we welcome your feedback and questions and commit to helping customers achieve and maintain the highest standard of security and compliance. Please feel free to reach out to the team through Azure Support.

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