Microsoft Office 365 now available from new Swiss datacenter regions

Microsoft Office 365 is now available for organizations and enterprises from our new cloud datacenter regions in Switzerland making it the third new geography launched in 2019. Earlier this year, Microsoft became the first global provider to deliver cloud services from datacenter regions in Africa and the Middle East by opening new geographies in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, we’ll continue to expand by delivering Office 365 from new datacenter regions in Germany and Norway.

Our ongoing global expansion is in direct response to customer demand as more industry leaders choose Microsoft’s cloud services to further their digital transformations. We offer customers a range of innovative regional Microsoft cloud services to enable their businesses to move faster and achieve more. The new datacenter regions offer the same reliability and performance as our globally delivered Office 365 service combined with data residency in Switzerland. This provides our customers trusted cloud services that help them meet local compliance and policy requirements. In addition, replication of data in multiple datacenters across Switzerland gives customers reliable in-country protection for business continuity in both pure and hybrid scenarios.

Office 365 brings together best-in-class tools to empower customers to get more done on any device. Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity solutions provide email, collaboration, conferencing, enterprise social networking, and business intelligence. In addition to long established popular solutions—including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business—Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork, is also delivered from the Swiss datacenter regions with local customer data storage.

Swiss organizations of all sizes and across all industries are currently investing in new ways of working and empowering their employees with modern tools that enable secure, flexible, and mobile working as well as foster collaboration. Office 365 from the Microsoft cloud in Switzerland is already seeing strong demand, especially with the new opportunity to store customer data at rest locally. Some of the initial customers in the Swiss regions, including Alpiq, Wincasa, WWF Switzerland, and the City of Zug, are embracing the opportunity for digital transformation.

Alpiq offers comprehensive and efficient services in the fields of energy production and marketing as well as energy optimization and electromobility throughout Europe. As a first step, Alpiq is implementing the workplace of the future with Office 365 from the Microsoft cloud in Switzerland.

“Alpiq is committed to transparent and responsible corporate governance. As an operator of critical infrastructure in Switzerland, the security of our IT and the protection of our data are of course absolutely central to us. By using the Microsoft datacenter regions in Switzerland with customer data storage within national borders, we will further advance the digitalization of the company and use the latest cloud technologies to the benefit of our employees, partners, and customers. Our employees’ work is agile and flexible. With the introduction of the collaboration platform Microsoft Teams, we offer them an innovative yet familiar environment that makes project-related and decentralized collaboration even easier and more efficient.”
—Dietmar Bettio, Head Group IT at Alpiq

Wincasa—the leading integrated real estate service provider in Switzerland with currently around 920 employees and 28 branches—is on its way to a new, more modern working environment. Important success factors are the latest tools and applications, such as Microsoft Teams, which promote internal and external collaboration.

“With the weworksmart initiative, we are introducing time- and location-independent working, flexible working models and modern workplaces, thus promoting an open culture. With the introduction of Office 365 from the Microsoft cloud in Switzerland, we are enabling our employees to work together in a more flexible and efficient way. Thanks to the Microsoft datacenter regions in Switzerland, we can ensure that we also work with absolute professionalism when it comes to reliability, security, and data protection. This is what our employees and our customers expect from us. As a recognized market leader, we stand for the highest quality and security.”
—Sandro Principe, Head of Transformation at Wincasa

WWF Switzerland has been committed to nature for 58 years and initiates and supports projects to protect the environment and shape a future worth living in. Efficiency, productivity, and security are also decisive success factors for NGOs. Günther Fehlmann, Head of IT at WWF Switzerland, therefore, relies on Microsoft Office 365 delivered from the local Microsoft cloud.

“WWF Switzerland works in an international network in over 100 countries on 6 continents. Office 365 enables us to work efficiently with our network and external partners. In addition, we are pleased to be able to use Office 365 from the Swiss datacenter regions at fair, non-profit conditions, because the security and reliability of our IT and the protection of donator data are absolute priorities for us. With Office 365, we offer our employees a modern working environment that enables them to work in a collaborative, flexible, and secure way.”
—Günther Fehlmann, Head of IT at WWF Switzerland

The City of Zug plans to deploy Office 365 from the Microsoft cloud in Switzerland. The Microsoft cloud regions in Switzerland ensure that customer data will be stored within the Swiss national borders, which is a central requirement for the city administration.

“The city administration of Zug wants to offer its employees a modern, flexible, and secure working environment. Thanks to the local customer data storage in the two Swiss datacenter regions, we will be able to use the modern collaboration functions of Office 365 from the cloud, which will make the internal collaboration of employees easier and the operation of the infrastructure much more efficient.”
—Daniel Truttmann, CIO of the city administration of Zug

Alpiq, Wincasa, WWF Switzerland, and the City of Zug are embracing Office 365 to empower employees, teams, and their entire organizations to communicate and collaborate. Learn more about empowering your organization with Office 365.