Microsoft He has announced one Sovereign cloud offer for European companiesto which he has called Sovereign Cloudand that covers both public cloud and private digital infrastructure. Among this offer, in addition, the company has announced the Data Guardian solutions for European operations, external Key Management for client -controlled encryption, Regulated Environment Management for greater configuration simplicity, and Microsoft 365 local for critical productivity services in private cloud environments.
Companies and organizations that need it can access three options: Sovereign Public Cloud (Sovereign Public Cloud), Sovereign Private Cloud (Sovereign Private Cloud) and support for local partners clouds (National Partner Clouds).
The Microsoft Sovereign Public Cloud It is an evolution and expansion of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignity, and will be offered in all existing European cloud regions, for all European clients and through business services. Among them Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security and Power Platform.
Savereign Public Cloud guarantees that customer data will remain in Europe, under European legislation, with operations and access controlled by European personnel, and with an encryption that customers control. It is enabled for all the workloads of the clients that are executed in the European cloud regions of Microsoft, without the need for migration.
As for the Microsoft Sovereign Private Cloudwill support critical workloads of collaboration, communication and virtualization services in Local Azure. Now it integrates Microsoft 365 local and the Microsoft security platform with local Azure, which offers adapted functions for hybrid or isolated environments, with the aim of meeting the resilience and continuity requirements of the business. Local Azure includes essential Azure capabilities, such as computation, storage, networks and virtualization services.
In France and Germany, Microsoft local partners clouds offer comprehensive Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure capabilities in an independent property and management environment. In France, the Microsoft agreement is with Bleu, a company from Orange and Capgemini, to be “cloud of trust” for the French public sector. In Germany, the agreement is with Delos Cloud, SAP subsidiary.
As to Data GuardianIt will add an additional level of guarantee to Microsoft’s sovereign cloud, since it will ensure that only Microsoft personnel resident in Europe controls remote access to the systems in which the data is stored, always in Europe. It includes additional human and technical supervision provided that engineers from outside Europe need access.
All remote accesses of Microsoft engineers, to the systems that store and process their data in Europe are approved and monitored in real time by resident personnel in Europe, and will be recorded in a manipulations -proof accounting book.
External Key Management, To expand Azure Managed HSM, puts the encryption under the total control of customers, which adds guarantees to data protection. With the management of external keys, customers can connect Azure to the keys stored in their local hardware safety module (HSM), or housed by a third party. Microsoft is working with the main HSM manufacturers, such as Futurex, Thales and Utimaco, to guarantee compatibility.
Finally, the Regulated Environment Management (Regulated Environment Management) It will facilitate customers for the management of all these functions in one place. This service will be the center of the customer experience to configure, deploy and supervise workloads that support sovereignty operations. Together, the tools will constitute the center of the customer experience to configure, deploy and supervise workloads in Sovereign Public Cloud.
The sovereign private cloud solution is already in a test version, and will be available in a general way throughout this year. As for Microsoft 365 local, it includes Microsoft business productivity software in a local Azure environment that can be completely executed in the client data center. It is based on a validated and backed reference architecture by Local Azure, and allows the deployment of solutions such as Exchange Server and SharePoint Server in local data centers or in sovereign cloud environments.
The sovereign private cloud is specially designed for governments, strategic industries and regulated sectors that need to meet demanding standards in data residence, operational autonomy and disconnected access. Together, Microsoft Sovereign Cloud is based on European digital commitments, and offers a combination of options, control and resilience for the company’s European clients.
