Despite the financial feasibility and ease of use of cloud applications, the recent security breaches have created a negative sentiment towards cloud technology. To counter the concern of security of the governments, Microsoft offers a product called Microsoft 365 or Office 365 U.S. Government. These Office 365 applications are an effective solution to cost-security-productivity negotiations while considering a shift to cloud technology.
Office 365 U.S. Government
One of the most important concerns with those working on cloud technology is security. The global security breach in 2014, which led to the leaking of more than 1 billion records and the recent leak of Yahoo’s data, is a deterrent to those considering shifting their IT to the cloud. While other solutions do exist, enhancing the security leads to compromise with productivity. The bet with the Office 365 U.S. government applications is that they claim to retain both security and productivity at a lower cost.
Benefits of using Office 365 U.S Government
Here are some of the benefits that Microsoft 365 or Office 365 U.S. government has to offer:
- Customization: The best part about Office 365 U.S Government is that it doesn’t give administrators all rights by default. That could be a choice. Ideally, it is on the user to decide the level of access given to others on his/her devices and applications on the cloud.
- Legalities: Office 365 U.S Government complies with almost all necessary rules, regulations, and protocols. This keeps them bound to update their security features every now and then to remain in compliance with the basic global security norms. This is the maximum any security product could give its users.
- Elimination of the need for support: One concern with any IT user would be that his access should be protected from everyone. This would include the support personnel as well. But in the rarest of the rare cases where assistance from a Microsoft engineer might be needed, it would be with the consent of the user.
- Mobility: As an added feature for the security of data on mobile devices, Office 365 U.S. government applications let the user wipe off his/her data on mobile devices remotely if the device gets lost or stolen.
- Encryption: Other than the end-to-end encryption, Office 365 U.S Government allows users to create customized security policies like restricting mail and application access to company-managed devices, etc.
The claim about Office 365 U.S. Government is that they test flaws in their own product by challenging its security. They call it their ‘assumed breach‘ strategy.
Where to buy Office 365 U.S. Government from
Once you have made up your mind about shifting to cloud technology, you could buy the product from the Office 365 U.S. Government product website. They offer a free trial as well.
Office 365 U.S. Government pricing chart & features
Though the pricing has not been mentioned explicitly for federal and state-level users, we could always inquire about the same when requesting for the trial.
The categories are Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 1, Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 2, Office 365 U.S. Government E1, Office 365 U.S. Government E3, Office 365 U.S. Government E4. The last two come with pre-installed office applications. The detailed table with their plans is as below:
NOTE: The data below may not be up-to-date, so please visit learn.microsoft.com and microsoft.com for the latest.
| Available Features |
Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 1 |
Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 2 |
Office 365 U.S. Government E1 |
Office 365 U.S. Government E3 |
Office 365 U.S. Government E4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
FeatureFully installed Office applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and OneNote on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user
Now includes the new Office 2016 apps for your PC and Mac.
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | 
(plus Access)
|
(plus Access)
|
|
FeatureOffice on tablets and phones for the fully installed Office experience on up to 5 tablets and 5 phones
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureOnline versions of Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more
|
View attachments only | View attachments only | |
|
|
|
FeatureFile storage and sharing with 1 TB storage/user
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
|
FeatureBusiness-class email, calendar, and contacts with a 50 GB inbox
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FeatureUnlimited online meetings, IM and HD video conferencing. Includes Skype for Business app
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
|
FeatureIntranet site for your teams with customizable security settings
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
|
FeatureCorporate social network to help employees collaborate across departments and locations
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
|
FeaturePersonalized search and discovery across Office 365 using the Office Graph
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
|
FeatureEnterprise management of apps with Group Policy, Telemetry, Shared Computer Activation
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureSelf-service Business Intelligence to discover, analyze, and visualize data with Excel
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureCompliance and information protection Legal hold, rights management, and data loss prevention for email and files
|
This Feature is not included | |
This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureeDiscovery Center tools to support compliance
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureVoicemail Hosted voicemail support with auto attendant capabilities
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
|
FeatureUnified communications to make calls using a PC and enhance or replace a PBX phone system with the enterprise calling capabilities of Skype for Business Server
|
This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | This Feature is not included | |
|
User maximum
|
The User Maximum for Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 1 is Unlimited | The User Maximum for Exchange Online U.S. Government Plan 2 is Unlimited | The User Maximum for Exchange Online U.S. Government E 1 is Unlimited | The User Maximum for Exchange Online U.S. Government E 3 is Unlimited | The User Maximum for Exchange Online U.S. Government E 4 is Unlimited |
Those interested may download this Microsoft publication on online security titled The Modern Workplace Watchdog. The focus of this eBook is on how Office 365 US Government helps keep data safe and team productivity.
[Originally published in 2019. Now updated]
