Microsoft Pledges to Store and Process EU Data in the EU

Microsoft Pledges to Store and Process EU Data in the EU
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Microsoft announced that it will process and store all European data inside EU borders. The software giant said that this commitment will apply across all of Microsoft’s core cloud services, such as Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365.

"We are beginning work immediately on this added step, and we will complete by the end of next year the implementation of all engineering work needed to execute on it. We’re calling this plan the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud," Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith wrote in the official company blog.

He added that Microsoft's cloud services already comply with or exceed EU guidelines even before the new plan. "We already provide 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," Smith wrote.

EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud will be powered by ongoing investments in an expansive European datacenter infrastructure. Microsoft opened their first datacenter in Europe in 2009, and their EU Data Boundary will leverage datacenters already opened or under construction in 13 European countries. In addition to customers in EU member states, customers in Norway and Switzerland will also have access to the EU Data Boundary.