Google, Microsoft and Amazon released cloud computing tools to help state and local health agencies accelerate the vaccination signup process as COVID-19 vaccines become available to almost everyone in the U.S, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Cloud service providers are investing in the development of technology platforms that could help the Department of Defense meet the needs of warfighters operating in tactical, distributed environments. “We have to create devices that can operate in those austere environments,” said Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft Federal for government customers and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient.

Microsoft has released templates to help organizations ensure secure cloud transitions that comply with the Department of Defense’s quarterly-updated security implementation guide. Nirali Shah, program manager for Microsoft Azure Government, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that the templates are meant to comply with the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Security Technical Implementation Guide that covers configurations for hardware, software and operating systems.

Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft’s federal arm, has received a Wash100 Award, the most celebrated award in all of government contracting (GovCon), for the fourth consecutive year. Wagner received his 2021 Wash100 Award for his leadership and efforts to drive digital transformation for federal agencies as they push adoption of the latest emerging technologies.

Microsoft has released a technology offering built to help government and private health care organizations manage mass vaccination efforts from scheduling to logistics and outcome monitoring. The Microsoft Vaccination Management platform is based on the Power Platform -- a suite of business application development, visualization and process automation tools ““ and provides users access to records via a single app. according to a blog post published Friday.

Tom Keane, corporate vice president for Azure global at Microsoft's Azure business, wrote in a blog post that the company is launching new DevSecOps offerings and partnering with the Department of Defense on cloud, artificial intelligence and analytics efforts.

Microsoft and Thales have partnered to integrate two offerings in a push to help highly regulated sectors protect sensitive data in cloud-based Office 365 applications while maintaining privacy compliance. The partnership combined the Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 and Thales' Luna Hardware Security Modules to support confidential data protection efforts in the financial services, health care and government sectors, the Paris-based technology provider said Tuesday.

Anitian and Microsoft have lenabled the former's automation tool to help customers deploy workloads into the Azure cloud environment and speed up cloud migration processes.

Microsoft has found that a state-sponsored threat actor operating from China, called Hafnium, is targeting U.S. defense contractors, law firms, policy think tanks, infectious disease researchers and other entitles to steal data by compromising on-premises Exchange Server software.

Microsoft now has 142 cloud services certified with high provisional authorization to operate under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which aims to standardize the security of cloud products used in the federal government. The company said in a blog post published Thursday its offerings under the Azure Government cloud work to boost the security and compliance of federal agencies.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the U.S. needs to improve its cyber defenses and come up with a “robust menu“ of responses to cyber attacks like the SolarWinds breach, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday. “We need to strengthen the nation's digital infrastructure and digital defenses, and that touches every part of the public sector, and every part of the private sector as well,“ Smith told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

Eric Brown, vice president of Azure global mission platform engineering at Microsoft, said the company works to help Department of Defense customers and partners meet evolving compliance requirements through its Azure Government cloud platform. One of the compliance requirements that defense contractors should meet is DOD's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and Brown wrote in a blog post published Tuesday how Azure Government and Microsoft 365 Government (GCC High) could help contractors achieve CMMC Level 3 and above.

Microsoft has teamed up with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to connect its Azure cloud to the International Space Station through HPE's Spaceborne Computer-2. SBC-2 is set to fly aboard Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft as part of Northrop's 15th commercial resupply mission to the orbiting laboratory on Feb. 20, and will bring artificial intelligence, cloud connectivity and edge computing capabilities to the ISS.

Microsoft has collaborated with Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, to create a tool for tracking the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world and progress in vaccination efforts throughout the U.S.

Microsoft has teamed up with 11 companies to develop a technology platform that could help ensure the security of microelectronics design and manufacturing using the Azure cloud service.