- The Sovereign Public Cloud will be offered to all European customers in all of Microsoft’s existing European data center regions. The package includes enterprise services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security, and the Power Platform. In the Sovereign Public Cloud, customer data will remain in Europe and subject to European law, the software giant promises. Operation of and access to the cloud will be solely in the hands of personnel residing in Europe. Furthermore, the Data Guardian feature ensures that only Microsoft employees residing in Europe control remote access to these systems. Customers also have full control over the encryption of their data in the Microsoft Cloud.
- With the Sovereign Private Cloud, Microsoft is going a step further. Customers can run critical collaboration and communications workloads on Azure Local. This combines solutions such as Microsoft 365 Local and Microsoft’s productivity server software into an environment that can run entirely in the customer’s own data center.
- Microsoft is also focusing on partnerships. The US provider plans to cooperate with national partner clouds such as Bleu in France and the Delos Cloud in Germany. There, customers will be able to access features from Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure in a standalone and independently operated environment.
For external key management, Microsoft is working with Aachen-based company Utimaco, among others. The joint solution includes Azure Managed HSM (Hardware Security Module) encryption. According to Microsoft, this allows customers to store their data in the cloud encrypted and generate, manage, and securely store the required keys yourself or through local partners.
With the help of an external key manager, such as the Utimaco Enterprise Secure Key Manager (ESKM), European Microsoft customers can also generate keys according to the highest FIPS standards, the company promises. These are secured by an integrated hardware security module that can be obtained as an on-premises appliance or as-a-service.
Microsoft must comply with Trump’s decree
Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft came under fire after the US company allegedly blocked the email account of Karim Khan, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. The reason for this was an executive order sanctions decree by US President Donald Trump, who threatened penalties for anyone who supported Khan financially, materially, or technically. (Microsoft President Brad Smith has since denied that Microsoft cancelled Khan’s account, though a Microsoft representative did admit the account was disconnected.)
