What the new Microsoft Sovereign Cloud push means for European customers
Microsoft has announced fresh details on its European cloud sovereignty scheme, confirming that data stored by customers will stay in the region and adhere to European legislation.
The new scheme, dubbed Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, will offer enterprises across the region access to three distinct options, including Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud, and National Partner Clouds.
Sovereign Public Cloud will be offered to all existing European data center regions, the company revealed, and will apply to core enterprise services including Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security, and Power platform.
This offering marks an “evolution and expansion” of the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty service, the company revealed in a blog post.
“Sovereign Public Cloud ensures customer data stays in Europe, under European Law, with operations and access controlled by European personnel, and encryption is under full control of customers,” the blog post reads.
Microsoft added that this service is “enabled for all customer workloads running in our European data center regions” and will not require migration.
Elsewhere, the Sovereign Private Cloud option is aimed at protecting workloads in Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local, the company’s on-prem infrastructure service for virtual machines (VMs), and containerization.
This service is fully integrated with Microsoft 365 Local and Azure Local, which the firm said will provide “consistent capabilities for hybrid air-gapped environments”.
“While strengthening sovereign controls in public cloud environments is critical, we also understand that some scenarios require certain workloads be run in a physical environment under full customer control to support business continuity risk mitigation,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
“Azure Local delivers Microsoft cloud services in customer locations, enabling organizations to meet specific data residency and sovereignty requirements.”
Microsoft commits to National Partner Clouds
A key talking point of the announcement this week is the expansion of National Partner Clouds in France and Germany. This service will allow enterprises to access Microsoft 365 and Azure in an “independently owned and operated environment”.
In France, for example, Microsoft will work with Bleu, a joint venture between Orange and Capgemini, to run a “cloud de confiance” for public sector organizations, critical infrastructure providers, and essential service providers.
The tech giant will also collaborate with Delos Cloud, an SAP subsidiary, to run a sovereign cloud for German public sector organizations. This is designed specifically to meet the German government’s Cloud Platform Requirements scheme.
Big tech ramps up cloud sovereignty in Europe
The move from Microsoft marks the latest in a string of big tech sovereignty announcements across Europe, with providers looking to shore up data protection and security practices for customers in the region.
A key factor in this industry-wide push has been lingering concerns over US overreach and access to both enterprise and consumer data in the European Union.
Earlier this year, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the tech giant would resort to legal action to protect EU customers from US demands to shut down services, for example.
CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the plans during an appearance at the AI Tour in Amsterdam, and in a post on X reaffirmed the tech giant’s commitment to the region.
“We’ve operated in Europe for more than 40 years – and we have been and always will be a steadfast partner to Europe,” he said.
“With Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, we’re committed to offering the most comprehensive set of sovereignty solutions for customers across Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud, and the National Partner Clouds operated by our European partners,” he said.
Microsoft isn’t alone in its sovereignty push, with Google Cloud recently announcing a host of new features and capabilities specifically for European enterprise customers.
AWS and Oracle have also ramped up sovereign cloud services, with the latter in particular focusing heavily on the trend. Last year, for example, Oracle chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said he expects a wholesale shift toward national sovereign cloud setups in the near future.
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