Microsoft Teams will be available July 17 for the US Government Community Cloud (GCC)

[Chantal De Menezes]

Today we are announcing that Microsoft Teams—the hub for teamwork in Office 365— will begin rolling out for the US Government Cloud Community (GCC) on July 17th and will be available for all eligible customers by the end of August 2018. 

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace that enables teams to be more productive by giving them a single and secure location that brings together everything a team needs including chats, meetings, calls, files, and tools. Teams in GCC has been built to meet the enhanced security and compliance requirements of our GCC customers allowing them to transform communication and collaboration. Implementing modern collaboration and communications capabilities in the government sector can streamline your daily work so you can more efficiently deliver against your mission and provide services to citizens and constituents.

Security and Compliance Features

Security and compliance capabilities are critical for Government customers. In Microsoft Teams, enterprise grade security, compliance and manageability capabilities are built in. Teams is built on the Office 365 hyper-scale cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities our customers expect.

Now Microsoft Teams meets the federal compliance requirements of GCC customers, including FedRAMP Moderate, CJIS, IRS 1075, and HIPAA, in addition to supporting global standards, including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, and ISO27001. We also added support for audit log search, eDiscovery, retention policies and legal hold for channels, chats and files as well as mobile application management with Microsoft Intune.

Improve Collaboration & Communication with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams provides teams with a chat-based workspace in which you can communicate and collaborate at ease with transparent and persistent conversations. Microsoft Teams leverages the power of Office 365 apps such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Integrated access to these Office 365 services leverages your current investments and improves collaboration in the context of your team by providing central file sharing, co-authoring, and many more functions.

Microsoft Teams brings intelligent communications scenarios to life. Communication is improved by including high quality video in any meeting and from any device.  Sharing files and agendas directly in the context of the meeting supports meeting efficiency. Imagine being able to collaborate on a document in real time with other team members and then hop quickly on a call to discuss your changes. This is the power of Microsoft Teams and Office 365.  Collaborate on budget documents, project proposals, and program updates in a unified experience.   

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With that in mind, we’re working to ensure every team member can participate, with accessibility features, including support for screen readers, high contrast and keyboard-only navigation. This enables Microsoft Teams to be more inclusive and to tap into the collective brainpower and potential of every person.

Start preparing to use Microsoft Teams today

Start using Microsoft Teams to facilitate collaboration and communication and enable your employees to achieve more.

1. Visit https://teams.microsoft.com to get started with the web experience or download the desktop client. 
2. Start to plan your implementation at https://successwithteams.com to get the most from Teams.
3. Please let us know if you have any questions by posting them in the technical community for Microsoft Teams at https://aka.ms/TeamsTechCommunity. We are here to answer your technical questions about the product.  Also visit the Drive Adoption forum to learn best practices for driving change management in your agency.

Frequently asked questions:

Q. Which Microsoft Government plans will include Microsoft Teams
A. Microsoft Teams is available in Office 365 for US Government G1, G3, G5, F1 and Microsoft 365 for US Government G3, G5, F1.

Q. What action do I (Admin) need to take to make Teams available to my users
A. Administrators do not need to take action, Microsoft Teams will be enabled by default. A Teams License will automatically be assigned to all existing users. However, for the best Teams experience, you should have Active Directory Online, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Groups enabled for your users.

Q. When will Teams become available to government plans?
A. Microsoft Teams will begin rolling out for the US Government Cloud Community (GCC) on July 17 and be available for all eligible customers by the end of August 2018. We are working to bring Microsoft Teams to the other US government clouds (GCC High and DoD) coming soon.

Q. Are there feature differences between Microsoft Teams in Microsoft Commercial Cloud and  Microsoft Teams in Government Community Cloud?

A. To accommodate the requirements of our government cloud customers there are a few features differences between the GCC cloud and that of commercial customers. For more information and to find out more about the features available, go to aka.ms/teamsgccsetup.

Going forward, new features for Microsoft Teams will arrive to GCC after release to commercial customers due to increased audit requirements and activities to meet the needs of the GCC environment. We are dedicated to honoring our compliance commitments laid out in the Office 365 Compliance Framework. We are working to shorten this time where possible.

Q. What platforms does Microsoft Teams support? 
A. Microsoft Teams runs on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and web platforms.

Q. What level of security and compliance does Microsoft Teams support?
A. Microsoft Teams security and compliance includes ISO 27001, ISO 27018, EUMC, SOC 1 Type I & II, SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA and FedRAMP Moderate. Microsoft Teams also enforces two-factor authentication, single sign on through Active Directory and encryption of data in transit and at rest.

Q. What trainings are available to help Office 365 admins learn about Microsoft Teams?

A. Start your training process for Microsoft Teams on our SuccessWithTeams.com site.  This information will support you in planning, deploying, adopting and managing Microsoft Teams.  Video content can be found in the Training section of the site.  Additionally, visit Coffee in the Cloud main video page on YouTube at https://aka.ms/CoffeeintheCloud for long form training content and short how-to videos relevant to IT professionals, Office 365 Champions and end users.

[Rahul null]

Great news! We got this info in Message Center but interestingly only through powershell API. The message MC142446 is not available in UI. We have GCC tenant with G3 subscription.

[Chantal De Menezes]

@Rahul null, please try again. I believe the issue has been resolved.

[Rahul null]

Thanks for the response! Just wanted to inform that we still don't see message in Message Center.

Thanks,

Rahul Babar

[Mike Beerman]

As stated in the article "Microsoft Teams will begin rolling out for the US Government Cloud Community (GCC) on July 17 and be available for all eligible customers by the end of August 2018". @Chantal De Menezes Does this include the EU GCC, or is this only for the US GCC rollout?

[Chantal De Menezes]

@Mike Beerman, No it does not include the EU GCC only the US Government Cloud Community, excluding GCC high and DOD.

[Cary Siemers]

Don't see it in the Message Center for our tenant either.

[Chantal De Menezes]

Due feedback received the post in Message Center have republished under MC143678. If you are still experience an issue please reach out to the Microsoft support Team. Note only eligible customer should see the post in message center.

[Joel Markowitz]

Certainly understand why bots and connectors would be delayed for GCC release of Teams (some may never clear the security bar), but why tabs?  That's the best way to customize channels to show documents, sites, etc., that a Team needs within the same GCC tenant.  That's really going to put a crimp on adoption.

[Chantal De Menezes]

@Joel Markowitz tabs allow for 3rd party application to be connected to tabs. We are working on ways to meet compliance and bring these feature to GCC customer as soon as possible

[wes]

What is the timeframe for GCC high availability?

[Chantal De Menezes]

@wes We are currently working to bring Teams to the other Government Cloud Commmunities as soon as possible.

[David Rosenthal]

@Joel Markowitz You'll be happy to know that we managed to sneak in a few compliant tabs at the last minute. Won't be much initially, but certainly better than completely empty and we'll continue adding more as we can.

[Samuel White]

 What is the easiest way to tell if Teams has been deployed to my tenant between now and the end of August?

[David Rosenthal]

@Samuel White As an admin, you can check in the admin center whether Teams settings are showing up.

As a user, you can look to see if Teams is showing up in your waffle or simply browse to teams.microsoft.com.

[David Rosenthal]

A quick update for everyone. Rollout began on 7/17 as planned and is ongoing. Go take a look and Teams may be there waiting for you now :)

[Ruben Garcia]

We are getting conflicting information as to when Teams will be available for organizations on Office 365 Government E3 from support. Are those licenses included in this rollout or is there a separate rollout for that license set?

Thanks Microsoft!

[Joel Markowitz]

Here's our progress so far (we're on G4, same as G3, Targeted Release, but I'm not sure if that matters):

First, we saw the new admin center appear Tuesday in the O365 Admin Center portal.  But no access to Teams.

Second, about 24 hours later, we saw Teams icons appear in the Office.com app list and in the waffle.  However, clicking on those gets you a "sorry could you please sign in again" message, referencing a Skype API being disabled.  That's apparently been the standard message for months, and nothing to be done about it on our end.

Other than clicking every few hours, I'm not sure how you know if all components are installed and active.  Maybe there will be a notice in the Message Center?  We understand a lot of back-end work needs to happen for each tenant, so we didn't expect instant gratification (though that would be nice).

[John McCaffrey]

I'll echo Joel's situation in one of my customer's tenant, with the addition that in the Admin Center, in the Settings>Microsoft Teams blade, there is an error "Unable to retrieve settings". Is this error message just due to it not being ready yet, or is it an actual error?

[Joel Markowitz]

@John McCaffrey   That's under Settings|Services & Add-ins|Teams, and it only means it's not available yet.  Same "error" message has been there a very long time.  I was talking about the new Teams & Skype portal under the Admin Centers list.  It looks like it's working, but not really.

[John McCaffrey]

Ok, it looks like we are seeing the same behavior in these tenants (I saw the same in the Teams & Skype portal as well), and it must be that it just isn't fully enabled yet. We'll just wait... a little longer   ;->

[David Rosenthal]

Just a little longer guys. We'll get there :)

[Ruben Garcia]

@David Rosenthal David, could you respond to my questions? Thanks!

[David Rosenthal]

@Ruben Garcia Your question is covered in the original blog post above:

Q. Which Microsoft Government plans will include Microsoft Teams
A. Microsoft Teams is available in Office 365 for US Government G1, G3, G5, F1 and Microsoft 365 for US Government G3, G5, F1.

If support is saying otherwise, you can send them my way.

[Ruben Garcia]

@David Rosenthal Our licensing portal says Office 365 Government E3 and that is not explicitly listed in the blog post. 

[Joel Markowitz]

Thanks to some help from @David Rosenthal Teams became available to us late last week.  Tabs are limited to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and your SharePoint Libraries, but not your SharePoint sites/pages.  Hope that one gets fixed soon.

@Ruben Garcia Similar on our licensing portal.  We've always been told that "Gx" is just the SKU for "Ex" plans in the GCC.  So G3 = Government E3.  Of course, as we know, that doesn't mean full feature parity.

[Robert Hammett]

Is there anyway to identify when our specific tenets should be receiving the Teams update?  I'm am hoping to get something more specific than by the end of August.  Goal is to do some internal testing of Teams to best understand the limited functionality on GCC and provide some baseline training to end users in hopes of avoiding as many issues as possible.   

[Deleted]

@David Rosenthal

I'm seeing very similar behavior to what @Joel Markowitz was seeing. I am able to see Microsoft Teams in my "Services & add-ins" section, however clicking it returns the "Unable to retrieve settings" error mentioned above (we also are seeing this in our Skype for Business settings). I have access to the Teams Admin site, I see the Teams option under the license assignment, and my end users are seeing Teams in their Waffle.

However, none of us are actually able to authorize with the Teams service and log in. Can you provide any insight into this? We have additionally escalated this to our account and premier teams.

Thanks,

Bryan

[David Rosenthal]

@Deleted If you have a support case open with Premier, that is the correct next step and they should take it from there.

@Robert Hammett If you are an admin, have you checked if it is there now? If you're not an admin, you should make sure your IT group has not disabled Teams :(

[Glenn Hasteadt]

is there a reason we can't add 3rd party apps in Teams running in US GCC?

[Chantal De Menezes]

@Glenn Hasteadt yes, this due to FedRamp compliance requirement in GCC. 

[Glenn Hasteadt]

@Chantal De Menezes Is this feature still awaiting approval or will it be disabled for the foreseeable future?  We'd like to start writing and using Bots. 

[Tim_Leheny]

Is there a timeline for Teams for GCC High customers?

[Glenn Hasteadt]

Not sure about the rest of you but I would appreciate more transparency into the process.  Not only what is coming but allow a drill down to see which regulatory body is holding up the process.  Who knows, maybe someone in this forum has the ability to help speed up the process ;)

[Martin Ballard]

Hi @Glenn,  the process isn't something any of us can speed up, for GCC High once engineering releases the product it must undergo FedRamp assessment and approval, which is an independent certification authority by design.  DOD releases must be reviewed and authorized by DISA. 

Similarly this is why you cannot at this time add 3rd party apps to Teams either.  The current approach requires that these undergo FedRamp review and approval as well and it is up to the individual app provider to undertake this process.  There has been some talk about introducing a risk-acceptance model for GCC however, if this is something you'd like to see please be sure to visit UserVoice to support any existing requests or start one yourself.  The more the product team hears on this the more seriously it will be considered.

As these authorities are independent of Microsoft updates to the public roadmap are not always possible until that certification disposition is communicated back to Microsoft.  At that time you will typically see an update to the public roadmap.  There may be some additional details available to you if your organization has an enterprise agreement with Microsoft, you only need to ask someone from your sales or account management team and they may be able to tell you more.  

[Joel Markowitz]

@Martin Ballard  It's still confusing.  You refer to the "authorities," but it's a joint activity of DOD, DHS and GSA, and they have a well documented "Marketplace" page on fedramp.gov showing the status of over 200 products.  However, even for products that are fully FedRAMP authorized (like Salesforce, Box or Slack), there appears to be no way to add them as apps on a Teams tab, so there must be more to it than just "...up to the individual app provider to undertake this process."  There is also apparently no way to add a tab for a SharePoint site within your own GCC tenant; you can only add a page within the SharePoint site connected to that specific Team.  Since we're a local government, the whole FedRAMP thing is overkill for our security needs.  I would strongly support a risk-acceptance model for organizations like ours.  

[Martin Ballard]

@Joel Markowitz You couldn't be more right about it being confusing.  My attempt to help you and others here isn't in an official capacity as a MSFT services employee, as which I am not myself privy to ALL the details of these processes.  This is why I encouraged you to leverage the contacts within your sales team as these are the folks with access to the Product Group - the only group - which can provide details of this nature, albeit through the conduit of your sales team.

That said, I deliberately chose the generalized term to refer to all parties involved in the audit and authorization processes which differ as you yourself note between GCC and DOD (I support both).   There being a difference between Box and Box's app for Teams, it has been explained at least in our circles that it is the app that requires audit and approval.  I myself have not tried contacting any of these vendors to see what kind of status they may have on those activities, but they would be the more appropriate party to direct the query to.  Microsoft will not be submitting Box or Salesforce apps for these processes as they do not own these apps.

I live your frustration with Teams GCC feature parity many times over every day as each of my customer faces the same challenges as you at the MTC.  I can tell you that the basic features like SharePoint Site Tabs are intended to be available in GCC in Q1, the goal being to bring basic feature parity (and this is certainly basic) to GCC.  Though 'feature parity' is a loaded term and not the best choice in my opinion.  The general restrictions of GCC on our SLG customers is a very real concern, and the account teams are actively looking for customers willing to offer this feedback so it can be taken to the product groups.  This is again why I encourage you to reach out through your account management channels as NDA considerations make it very difficult to paint a clear picture in an open forum such as this.

So as I said, I not only understand your frustration, I live it myself with the bonus of having to deliver the bad news.  If this sounds incomplete ("there must be more it") its because it is and as I have tried to suggest there are channels you can pursue that are less restrictive than this open forum.  I really do hope that this gives you some kind of path to get at least a little more specific information to help you and your org make progress on your implementation.  Happy holidays.

[Ayoub_ex2020]

Merci

[CBharulePRJtatacapit]

Welcome 

[Isaac245]

I'm new here and no doubt I will learn a lot 

[weskeene]

In GCC High, how do I access the Teams admin center, or possibly the its predecessor for managing Teams functions? We do have and use Teams, but I have no idea how to control admin settings for it, such as enabling/disable read receipts and connectors?

[dariaahn]

who is an admin for the army reserve for microsoft teams? I cannot get into admin center because i am not an admin, but i need to be able to download the participants who were in a meeting. there is a way, but i have to change settings through admin ?

[Elisa_Poffel]

The Ohio EPA has a Gov license. I downloaded Teams mobile for the first time to android phone, but it won't take me to a logon screen. We have a 60 day password reset policy and folks can't logon. Is there a way to get logged on or change the password on the downloaded mobile Teams with a government license? Thank you and have a wonderful day.

[Elisa_Poffel]

The Ohio EPA has a Gov license. I downloaded Teams mobile for the first time to android phone, but it won't take me to a logon screen. We have a 60 day password reset policy and folks can't logon. Is there a way to get logged on or change the password on the downloaded mobile Teams with a government license? Thank you and have a wonderful day.@David Rosenthal

[Joshuabk]

Hi

[Melat1415]

SolMe@school.lu