In a landmark announcement, Microsoft has unveiled a significant expansion of its Sovereign Cloud offering for Europe, providing organisations with greater control, compliance, and resilience over their data and digital infrastructure.
This development is not only a major step forward in Microsoft’s long-standing European Digital Commitments but also a game-changer for organisations operating in heavily regulated sectors across the continent. So what is Microsoft Sovereign Cloud all about?
Expanding Control and Compliance Across Europe
For over four decades, Microsoft has invested in its European presence.
The new Sovereign Cloud capabilities reflect both a deep understanding of European regulatory landscapes and an appreciation of the increasing demands placed on organisations to protect sensitive data (encapsulated by NIS 2) while continuing to innovate.
The enhanced solution spans both public and private cloud environments, offering organisations the flexibility to choose the right blend of control, security and scalability for their needs.
Sovereign Public Cloud: Data Sovereignty Without Compromise
At the heart of the announcement is Microsoft’s Sovereign Public Cloud – an evolution of the existing Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty – which will now be available across all European data centre regions.
It allows organisations to host workloads on Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security, and Power Platform, ensuring that data remains physically located within Europe, subject to European law, and managed by European personnel. Importantly, this sovereignty applies to all customer workloads without the need for costly or complex migrations to specialist data centres.
New Security Features Strengthen Data Control
Data Guardian provides an extra layer of assurance: European-based personnel will manage and oversee any remote access to data systems, with tamper-evident logs ensuring full transparency. This level of oversight is particularly relevant for sectors where operational autonomy and compliance are paramount.
Further strengthening data protection, Microsoft has introduced External Key Management, giving organisations full control of encryption keys through integration with on-premises or third-party Hardware Security Modules. Supported by key industry vendors such as Futurex, Thales and Utimaco, this enables businesses to maintain absolute control over data encryption — a crucial factor for regulated industries and public sector bodies.
The newly introduced Regulated Environment Management service also simplifies the management of these controls, allowing organisations to configure, deploy, and monitor workloads in one place while maintaining full compliance oversight.
Sovereign Private Cloud: Full Control for Critical Workloads
Recognising that certain workloads must remain fully within customer environments, Microsoft’s Sovereign Private Cloud — powered by Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local — offers on-premises solutions that retain full customer control.
Built on Microsoft’s validated reference architecture, organisations can now deploy familiar productivity tools such as Exchange Server and SharePoint Server entirely within their own data centres or sovereign environments, while still benefiting from cloud-like flexibility and management.
Building a Trusted Partner Ecosystem
In parallel, Microsoft continues to build its Sovereign Cloud partner ecosystem, offering customers access to highly-capable partners who can deliver and manage these complex solutions.
As part of the new Microsoft Sovereign Cloud Specialisation, partners such as Capgemini, Atos, IBM and others will support organisations in deploying and operating sovereign solutions tailored to their regulatory needs.
Microsoft Sovereign Cloud: A Stable Platform for Innovation
In an era where geopolitical uncertainty and regulatory complexity continue to evolve, Microsoft’s comprehensive sovereign cloud offering represents a stable foundation for European organisations to innovate, grow and lead confidently.
As a Microsoft Azure expert, Akita is perfectly positioned to help organisations leverage these new sovereign cloud capabilities — combining technical excellence with proven expertise in managing compliance, security and digital transformation.
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