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Microsoft has responded to the growing demands of European organizations and announced a variety of sovereign cloud solutions. The aim is to give companies more control over their data, ensure higher data protection standards and set new standards in digital stability. The solutions are in various stages of availability and offer flexibility for different use cases.
Sovereign cloud offerings: Three central solutions
With the new offerings, Microsoft is providing companies with three different variants to meet their individual needs:
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Sovereign Public Cloud:
This solution enables European customers to store and process their data securely in Europe without the need for additional migrations. Management and operation are carried out exclusively by European personnel. The Sovereign Public Cloud is currently in preview and will be generally available for all European cloud regions in the course of 2025. -
Sovereign Private Cloud:
This option offers organizations the ability to deploy their Microsoft 365 and Azure services in highly protected, locally controlled environments that meet the highest data security standards. The Sovereign Private Cloud, including Microsoft 365 Local, is also still in the preview phase and should be available to all customers by the end of the year. -
National Partner Clouds:
These clouds, which are operated by local partnerships, are already active. In Germany, Delos Cloud enables the use of a sovereign cloud for the public sector, while in France, Bleu is available as a "Cloud de Confiance" for similar tasks.
New functions for even more control and security
Microsoft is also introducing new functionalities that are already available for initial tests and configurations:
- Data Guardian: this function ensures comprehensive control over data access by European Microsoft personnel. All accesses are approved and logged in real time.
- External Key Management: Customers can manage their encryption keys on their own hardware security modules (HSM) and thus further increase data security.
- Regulated Environment Management: A central dashboard simplifies the management of data protection and security policies within Sovereign Clouds.
Conclusion
With the new sovereign cloud solutions, Microsoft offers companies in Europe flexible options to meet data sovereignty and security requirements. While some technologies such as the Sovereign Public and Private Clouds are still in preview and will be generally available by the end of 2025, the National Partner Clouds are already active and can be used immediately.
