Microsoft's Azure cloud solution has been deemed compliant with Criminal Justice Security Standards (CJIS) in California, USA. The notification was given by California's Department of Justice (DOJ). To attain compliance the solution had to meet a range of FBI security requirements.
The demanding CJIS security requirements have essentially blocked criminal justice agencies from using external cloud infrastructure until now and agencies have had to rely on internal solutions. Being recognized in this fashion means a range of agencies are now permitted to use Microsoft in California to host apps and store data. Google is currently not CJIS compliant because the corporation does not allow "physical access" to its facilities.
“That’s really at the core of the agreement: California has a contractual commitment from Microsoft to meet or exceed the CJIS standards,” explained the Chief Technology Officer of State and Local Government at Microsoft, Mr. Stuart McKee told GovTech.com. “Just holding your data internally doesn’t inherently make it more secure. That’s unfortunately a misnomer. Candidly, there are some challenges we do have with the CalCloud arrangement because it does, in many ways, restrict competition."
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