Microsoft’s new offering, the Microsoft Cloud for Cloud Sovereignty, aims to assist government institutions in accelerating their digital transformation. It hopes to enable the public sector to process data with “increased transparency to the operational and governance processes of the cloud.”

To simplify the complexity of the spectrum of data classification requirements, Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty will include a Sovereign Landing Zone, a solution to simplify the architecture, the deployment workflow, and provide tools to orchestrate operations of Microsoft’s various security services and policy controls.

This landing zone will be flexible enough to allow customers to define custom policies to meet specific industry and regulatory requirements. The landing zone will span the Microsoft public cloud, with tools to maintain data residency, deploy sovereign controls, protect data classification and extend into hybrid deployments, creating a single solution for all application needs.

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“Microsoft engages with governments, regulators, standards bodies and nongovernmental organizations to understand emerging requirements and ensure a fast and effective enablement of critical compliance needs,” the company said in a media advisory.

Security

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty will deliver capabilities that will provide customers with additional layers to protect and encrypt sensitive data. These capabilities span the entire Microsoft Cloud from cloud infrastructure, platform services and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform.

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty customers will continue benefiting from Microsoft’s global security signals, analyzing over 24 trillion signals every day to identify and help protect against local attacks.

Customers can leverage Azure Confidential Computing, a technology offering sovereign protection with Confidential Virtual Machines and Confidential Containers. Microsoft’s unique offering utilizes specialized hardware to create isolated and encrypted memory called Trusted Execution Environments (or TEEs).

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is designed as a partner-led and partner-first solution. In-country partners will play a pivotal role in enabling customer success and delivering on government requirements. With the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, customers will work with in-country partners that have industry and technical experience to help them plan, onboard, govern and operate their cloud environments with capabilities including data residency, confidential computing, document classification, and hybrid deployments.