A new “Cloud for…” has been announced and this one – Cloud for Sovereignty – is aimed at helping Public Sector organisations make the most of, and thus use more of, the Azure cloud. It does this by offering enhanced capabilities to meet the various rules and regulations around data location and access such as the GDPR.
As the image shows, it focuses on 4 key areas:
- Data Residency
- Sovereign Controls
- Governance & Transparency
- Expertise
Data Residency
A key focus for public sector organisations is the location of data and Microsoft say they will soon be adding the “EU Data Boundary” which will ensure all EU & EFTA customer data is not only stored in the EU but also processed there too.
Sovereign Controls
Microsoft say these new protection and encryption capabilities will span the entire Microsoft cloud from IaaS & PaaS through to SaaS such as M365, D365, and Power Platform.
Governance & Transparency
This will give eligible organisations access to source code and the ability to audit Azure compliance processes.
Expertise
Microsoft position this as a partner-led offering and it seems this is, at least partly, related to the recent cloud licensing changes they announced for “European” cloud providers.
See more about the offering here.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 