Highlights:

  • With the addition of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, public sector customers will have greater control over their data.
  • The Microsoft Cloud, combined with strategic partners, can support the digital transformation of customers.

Microsoft recently unveiled the release of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty at the Microsoft Inspire 2022 conference. This new service is aimed at public sector customers, particularly in Europe, who need to ensure that their user data is handled and stored in a specific location.

“Today, public sector customers can harness the full power of Microsoft Cloud, including broad platform capabilities, resiliency, agility, and security,” the company explains in the recent announcement. “With the addition of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, they will have greater control over their data and increased transparency to the operational and governance processes of the cloud.”

Users will be able to access all of the standard Microsoft Cloud services (such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the Azure platform), run their workloads in any of Azure’s more than 60 data center regions, and enable residency options for each of these to comply with their regulatory requirements. In addition, the firm will provide a “Sovereign Landing Zone” to suggest and enforce compliance solutions with the same infrastructure-as-code and policy-as-code elements as its Azure Landing Zone. The company claims that by doing this, it will be easier for its clients in the public sector to get up and running while still having the freedom to modify these regulations to suit their needs.

Of course, the other big cloud service providers also have procedures to guarantee adherence to data sovereignty laws. For instance, Google just revealed Sovereign Controls for its Workspace product. In contrast, AWS not only provides all the building blocks to create these features but also relies on its network of independent suppliers and consultants to make them available to its clients. Few, though, have given data governance a priority as Azure, which might pay off in its mission to win over more lucrative public sector clients.