Microsoft’s Cloud for Sovereignty enters public preview

Devesh Beri

Microsoft is announcing the public preview of the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is a new solution that provides governments with a secure and compliant way to adopt the cloud.

The solution is based on Microsoft’s principled approach to digital sovereignty, which gives customers control over their data and its use.

Government customers have faced challenges in digital transformation, including meeting specific national and regional requirements. This initiative aims to provide an alternative to the capital expenses and operational costs associated with legacy approaches to technology infrastructure.

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty includes several features that are designed to meet the needs of governments, such as:

  • Sovereign landing zones: These pre-configured environments help governments quickly and easily deploy and manage cloud workloads in compliance with regional and national requirements.
  • Support for Italy’s ACN requirements and the Netherlands BIO regulation: Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty can help governments in Italy and the Netherlands meet their specific data protection and compliance requirements.
  • Transparency Logs: These logs provide governments with visibility into key operational activities of Microsoft engineers, such as who has accessed their data and when. This helps governments to build trust and confidence in Microsoft’s cloud platform.
  • Automated workload templates for Azure Confidential Computing and Azure Lighthouse: These templates make it easier for governments to build and deploy workloads using these technologies, which can help them to further protect their data and improve their security posture.

In simpler terms, these features are designed to help governments:

  • Deploy and manage cloud workloads quickly and easily in compliance with their regional and national requirements.
  • Meet their specific data protection and compliance requirements.
  • Build trust and confidence in Microsoft’s cloud platform.
  • Protect their data and improve their security posture.

Overall, the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty helps governments modernize their technology while adhering to national data sovereignty requirements, enhancing security and compliance, and offering tailored cloud solutions for the public sector.