CLOUD COMPUTING
The offering brings together productivity, security and cloud solutions across Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud and National Partner Clouds.
Data residency requirements drive sovereign cloud adoption Data residency and sovereignty requirements have intensified across jurisdictions as governments seek to protect citizen data and maintain control over digital infrastructure. The European Union has implemented data protection regulations that require customer data to remain within specific geographic boundaries, while other regions including Australia, India and the Middle East have introduced similar mandates.
“ Sovereignty has become a core requirement for governments, public institutions and enterprises seeking to harness the full power of the cloud while retaining control over their data and operations,” says Douglas Phillips, President and Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft Specialized Clouds.
Microsoft has established a European board of directors composed of European nationals to oversee all data centre operations in compliance with European law. The company has increased European data centre capacity with launches in Austria and an upcoming launch in Belgium. The firm has embedded digital resiliency commitments into government contracts and expanded open-source investment.
“GREATER CHOICE, MORE CONTROL OVER DATA PRIVACY AND THE MOST ROBUST DIGITAL RESILIENCE”
Judson Althoff, CEO, Commercial, Microsoft
The Sovereign Public Cloud will be offered across all existing European data centre regions for all European customers across enterprise services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security and Power Platform. The offering ensures customer data stays in Europe under European law, with operations and access controlled by European personnel.
Ensuring AI data processing remains within EU boundaries AI workloads present particular challenges for sovereign cloud deployments as AI models require substantial computing resources and data processing capabilities. Cloud providers must ensure AI services process customer data within designated geographic boundaries while maintaining performance and functionality.
192 December 2025