The Deparment of Defense (DOD) has announced it is adopting Microsoft Teams to temporarily help it cope with the increase in remote workers.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on organizations around the world, tech solutions that provide a way for individuals to continue working remotely are in high demand. Few companies have benefited from that reality more than Microsoft, whose Teams software has become a staple of many companies and organizations.

The DOD is not immune to these trends, and established the “Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) Environment to support the Department’s move towards a large-scale telework posture in response to the COVID–19 national emergency. This new tool will provide DoD with enhanced collaboration capabilities for DoD teleworkers to facilitate continuity of operations throughout the duration of the emergency.”

Microsoft Teams will evidently play a big, not to mention unusual, role in the CVR Environment. According to Computerworld, “DoD employees will be able to access the CVR Teams environment via Microsoft Office 365 in the Government Commercial Cloud for chat, video and document collaboration. Unlike existing deployments of Teams in the DoD, the CVR Teams environment will be available on personal and mobile devices and on commercial networks, though the department has restricted what information can be shared.”

This move is an indication of the ongoing challenges organizations are facing, and the measures being taken to maintain productivity in the face of unprecedented circumstances.