Microsoft steps up cloud protections for data-conscious EU

ISLAMABAD: American tech giant Microsoft said Monday it was offering new cloud-computing products for European governments and organisations keen to control their data and ensure compliance with strict EU rules.

Microsoft launched the offering in a statement strewn with the words “sovereign” and “sovereignty”, reflecting anxiety among political and tech leaders outside the US about American dominance.

The biggest change Microsoft announced was that only staff based in the EU will be able to control remote access to cloud computing systems — rented remote hardware for storing and processing data — located in the bloc.

Its “Sovereign Public Cloud” product “ensures customer data stays in Europe, under European Law, with operations and access controlled by European personnel, and encryption is under full control of customers,” the company said.

“All remote access by Microsoft engineers to the systems that store and process your data in Europe is approved and monitored by European resident personnel in real-time and will be logged in a tamper-evident ledger,” it added.

Microsoft also said that clients would be able to operate local, walled-off versions of its office software like Exchange and Sharepoint in their own data centres, offering them “full control on security, compliance, and governance”.

The option is “designed for governments, critical industries, and regulated sectors that need to meet the highest standards of data residency, operational autonomy, and disconnected access,” Microsoft added.

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The Redmond-based company said its new products would be available by the end of the year.

Microsoft’s push to offer more “sovereign” options follows up on an April promise to expand data centres in 16 European countries, contribute to building an artificial intelligence “ecosystem” on the continent and work with the region’s cloud operators.

American companies account for between 70 and 80 percent of the European cloud-computing market.

But France in particular has been pushing to build up European capabilities to keep data out of reach of the US government.

American law includes provisions under which Washington can compel private companies to grant access to data stored on their servers — even outside US territory.

Schleswig-Holstein, one of Germany’s 16 states, said Thursday that it would eliminate Microsoft software from its systems starting from later this year.