The effort will help integrators sell systems that the trio says will allow government departments to share sensitive data with other federal or non-governmental organizations, while maintaining security.
One slightly chilling example would be the sharing of confidential medical records between government agencies and the private sector in the event of pandemic disease, the trio said.
In the past Microsoft would talk to customers about using software to ensure security, Cisco would talk about networks and security, and EMC would talk about security and storage systems and software, said Eric Rosenkranz, industry manager for Microsoft’s public sector organization.
What’s new is that we’ve produced a set of optimized systems, and that means that integrators aren’t starting from zero when they go in, Rosenkranz said.
The inevitable acronym is SISA, Secure Information Sharing Architecture. Other vendors whose products will be part of the scheme are digital rights specialist Liquid Machines, network security maven Swan Island Networks, and data classification and labeling supplier Titus Labs.
The first configurations have already been finalized, and a three-tier certification program will be released soon, according to Microsoft. The development of the configurations and training programs is being completed by Addx, which Microsoft described as a program management specialist.
Currently the program is only being operated in the US.
