Microsoft wants to help EU customers store their data closer to home

Microsoft has shared details about its commitment to European Union (EU) commercial customers allowing them to store and process most of their data within the EU. 

The move follows last year’s cancellation of the EU-US Privacy Shield by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) over concerns that the agreement still leaves the data of EU customers exposed to US government surveillance.

Microsoft’s latest commitment can be seen as a move to assuage some of the concerns of its EU customers, by enabling them to house their data in Microsoft's core cloud services inside data centers located within the EU. 

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“If you are a commercial or public sector customer in the EU, we will go beyond our existing data storage commitments and enable you to process and store all your data in the EU...We’re calling this plan the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud,” said Microsoft president Brad Smith sharing details about the plan.

Core cloud services

Smith was quick to add that the company already allows its commercial and public sector customers the choice to have data stored in the EU, and many Azure cloud services can already be configured to process data in the EU as well.

The new plan extends that plan to the whole gamut of Azure and Azure-powered services as well as to Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365. 

He added that the company has already begun work on engineering this plan, which should wrap up by the end of next year. 

At the same time Microsoft will consult with EU regulators and customers to work out any kinks and make necessary tweaks particularly around unique circumstances like cybersecurity. 

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Via ZDNet

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