Digital sovereignty
Microsoft Sovereign Cloud
Keep the power of the cloud and AI under your control.
OVERVIEW
Discover a sovereign cloud without compromise
Get a comprehensive set of sovereignty solutions across AI, productivity, security, and cloud in one platform.
Sovereign Public Cloud
Run cloud and AI services with built-in sovereign controls across the Microsoft public cloud.
Sovereign Private Cloud
Operate sensitive workloads under local control using hybrid or fully disconnected cloud environments.
National Partner Clouds
Use Microsoft cloud capabilities in independently operated clouds designed for specific regulatory requirements.
Scenarios
Sovereignty that meets your needs
Microsoft Sovereign Cloud is designed to support the full spectrum of digital sovereignty needs—without compromise.
- Meet regulatory requirements with built-in governance, policy controls, and compliance insights across cloud and AI without compromise.
- Use built-in governance tools like Azure Policy to align cloud environments with regulatory standards.
- Comply with sovereignty requirements across global and industry frameworks with Azure’s security and privacy controls.
- Get clear visibility into compliance risk and apply consistent governance across cloud environments using built-in Microsoft capabilities.
- Configure, deploy, and monitor workloads in support of sovereign operations in a unified portal.
- Process Microsoft 365 Copilot AI data in-country and run AI training or inference locally to keep sensitive information under your control.
- Comply with local data requirements by processing Microsoft 365 Copilot AI data in-country, giving you greater control over where sensitive information resides.
- Train and run AI models locally using Azure Local, which gives you flexibility over data location, infrastructure, and model governance.
- Protect data with encryption at rest, in transit, and in use, blocking cloud operator access unless you explicitly authorize it.
- Protect data with layered controls that encrypt data at rest, in transit, and in use, preventing access by cloud operators unless explicitly authorized.
- Operational access to European Microsoft Cloud services is approved by European personnel and tracked by tamper-evident logs.
- Bring and manage your own key stores on hardware security modules to gain an additional layer of encryption key control and protection.
- Choose where data is stored and processed with regional and country options to meet sovereignty, compliance, and operational needs.
- Scale with confidence using flexible data residency options that keep you compliant and in control of your data.
- Keep your data stored and processed within the EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA), with options to place data in specific countries or across European regions.
- Support data residency regulations with a locally hosted, consistent management and developer experience.
- Maintain continuity for critical operations with redundancy, fault isolation, and recovery controls across hybrid or disconnected environments.
- Choose locally hosted, hybrid, or fully disconnected environments with Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local.
- Maintain service continuity through infrastructure redundancy, fault isolation, and recovery controls.
Microsoft Sovereign Cloud in Europe: Control, Compliance, and Continuity
Discover how Microsoft delivers sovereign cloud services in Europe through technical controls, operational governance, and legal commitments without limiting innovation or cloud capability.
Frequently asked questions
- Microsoft Sovereign Cloud is Microsoft’s unified sovereignty offering across the public cloud, private environments, and partner‑operated clouds. It brings together AI, productivity, security, and cloud services with capabilities that help organisations control where their data lives, how access is governed, and how cloud operations run. Organisations can use these capabilities to support digital sovereignty requirements without moving workloads to a separate cloud.
- Microsoft approaches digital sovereignty as capabilities built into the cloud platform rather than a separate cloud environment. Sovereignty requirements can be supported through a combination of technical, contractual, and operational measures that help organisations retain authority over their data and operations while continuing to benefit from global cloud scale, security, and innovation.
- Different workloads have different regulatory, operational, and risk requirements. Microsoft gives organisations the flexibility to select and configure the appropriate level of sovereignty controls for each workload, from standard cloud deployments to environments with stricter operational boundaries. These controls can evolve over time as regulations, risk posture, or business needs change.
- Organisations can help maintain control of their data through encryption, customer-managed keys, identity-based access policies, transparency tools, and audit logs. These capabilities define who can access data, how it is processed, and how access is monitored. Administrative access is subject to authorization and logging controls, enabling organisations to review and audit access.
- Data residency and compliance requirements vary by country, industry, and workload. Microsoft provides regional infrastructure and governance capabilities that help organisations define where data is stored and processed and apply controls that align with local laws and regulations. Organisations can use these capabilities to support compliance obligations while operating within a consistent cloud environment.
- Organisations can adopt AI while applying control over how data is processed and governed. Microsoft provides options to define data processing boundaries and apply governance controls to AI workloads. For applicable enterprise AI services, customer data is not used to train foundation models, consistent with Microsoft’s published AI commitments.
- Organisations need confidence that critical systems continue operating during disruptions, whether regulatory, geopolitical, or technical. Microsoft Sovereign Cloud supports resilience by giving organisations flexibility in how and where workloads run. Critical systems can be architected to operate across cloud and local environments, helping support availability objectives during disruptions while maintaining required levels of operational control.
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