Microsoft Catching Up to Amazon in Security Clearances for Cloud

Microsoft Corp. is catching up to Amazon.com Inc. in obtaining federal security approvals, giving it an edge over other potential bidders in the Pentagon’s winner-take-all competition for a multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract. The company best-known for its office software is advancing toward the certification needed to host the government’s most sensitive, classified information -- a status held currently only by Amazon Web Services -- as it expands cloud-computing storage centers through its Azure Government Secret unit. “Based on the security accreditation process alone there are really only two competitors,” Amazon and Microsoft, said Christopher Cornillie, a federal market analyst for Bloomberg Government.