B2B / Guest Access between Government (National Cloud) and Commercial Cloud timeline

[jebalert]

I heard that this is coming to GCC high / DoD. Based on documentation, currently b2b/guest access is only supported for national cloud to national cloud, right? When will it be possible to inter-operate between gov and commercial tenants via Guess Access / B2B in Teams? 

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @jebalert,

The rollout for Azure B2B for Azure Government/GCC High is a multi-phased approach.

Phase 1- We have recently rolled out Azure B2B for some GCC High tenants. This allows for two GCC High B2B enabled tenants to configure identity federation. We will eventually enable it for all GCC High tenants. When enabled it will allow for guest access/Teams collaboration between two GCC High tenants. 

Phase 2- We are developing the capability to enable GCC High tenants to enable B2B identity federation for the sharing of web docs (ODfB/SPO) to Commercial tenants and vice versa. 

Phase 3- We are developing the capability to enable GCC High tenants to enable B2B identity federation with Commercial tenants for the Teams client. This will enable external collaboration via Teams. 

The timelines for these phases are NDA so please connect privately with me or your account team. 

Here is the public documentation regarding Azure B2B for Azure Government:

• B2B Collaboration is available in Azure US Government tenants created after June, 2019. Over time, more tenants will get access to this functionality. See How can I tell if B2B collaboration is available in my Azure US Government tenant?

The following features have known limitations in Azure Government:

• Limitations with B2B Collaboration in supported Azure US Government tenants:

  • B2B collaboration is currently only supported between tenants that are both within Azure US Government cloud and that both support B2B collaboration. If you invite a user in a tenant that isn't part of the Azure US Government cloud or that doesn't yet support B2B collaboration, the invitation will fail or the user will be unable to redeem the invitation.
  • B2B collaboration via Power BI is not supported. When you invite a guest user from within Power BI, the B2B flow is not used and the guest user won't appear in the tenant's user list. If a guest user is invited through other means, they'll appear in the Power BI user list, but any sharing request to the user will fail and display a 403 Forbidden error.
  • Office 365 Groups are not supported for B2B users and can't be enabled.
  • Some SQL tools such as SSMS require you to set the appropriate cloud parameter. In the tool's Azure Service setup options, set the cloud parameter to Azure US Government.

[#3]

Hi @Paul Meacham,

Our organisation exists in the Commercial Cloud and we're looking to share PowerBI reports with users residing in the Government Cloud. All currently available information appears to state that this is in rollout phase, however I was wondering if we're able to have confirmation that this will work, i.e. providing external guest user access to the GCC user via our Commercial Azure AD.

Any updated information would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks & Regards, 

[#4]

@adambosen Microsoft will be rolling out Azure AD based cross-sovereign authentication and sharing capabilities soon. We will be able to share more in Q4CY2020. 

[#5]

@Paul Meacham 

Great news; do you anticipate having that feature available in Q4, or just an announcement in Q4?

[#6]

Thanks @Paul Meacham, please keep us updated later this year as information becomes available. BR,

[#7]

@Paul Meacham Now that November 2020 is around the corner, is there any word on when B2B for GCC-High tenants will be rolled out for everyone?  Our GCC-High tenant is capable of using B2B, but I don't know what it would look like when it's implemented.  Will we see the "Guest" option in Teams?  Will we see a notice or announcement in the Admin Portal?  We have a lot of partners that have to use the browser interface for meetings, and many users really need the full collaboration capabilities of the MS Teams application.  Will this be announced on Microsoft's road map because I don't see it right now.  Thank you for any info!

Heath

[#8]

@hhayslett1229 @Paul Meacham - Any news on the Q4 2020 release or relevant updates?

[#9]

@Paul Meacham Has there been any update to Azure Government high B2B.  Is there any documentation or mention on the roadmap? Any ideas how it will work?  Will it be similar to External Identities that exist on the commerical side?

Regards