Microsoft announced today that it will allow commercial and public sector customers in the EU to store all of their data in the EU by 2022.

“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,” Microsoft president Brad Smith announced. “In other words, we will not need to move your data outside the EU. This commitment will apply across all of Microsoft’s core cloud services: Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365.”

Smith says that Microsoft has already begun working towards this goal—which it calls the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud—and it plans to complete this work by the end of next year.

To be clear, Microsoft already complies with or exceeds EU guidelines for cloud services. Today, Microsoft’s commercial and public sector customers can already choose to keep their data stored in the EU, and it provides encryption and protects customers from improper governmental access. Under the new plan, Microsoft will dramatically exceed its legal requirements by storing and processing all of the personal data for its EU commercial and public sector customers inside the EU.

“This plan includes any personal data in diagnostic data and service-generated data, and personal data we use to provide technical support,” Smith says. “We will also extend technical controls such as Lockbox and customer-managed encryption for customer data across Microsoft core cloud services. We will build these EU Data Boundary Solutions into our core cloud services to enhance our current offerings for customers.”

Microsoft will host an EU Cloud Customer Summit this fall where it will share more information about this work. But you can learn more about the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud on the Microsoft Tech Community website in the meantime.

Tagged with Microsoft Azure