Today, we’ve taken a significant step forward to empower businesses to achieve more with the first complete cloud offering delivered from a global provider within the U.K. Built to power their digital transformation, Microsoft Azure and Office 365 are now generally available from new datacenter regions.
Each new region adheres to our Trusted Cloud principles, including security, privacy, compliance and transparency. These new Microsoft Cloud regions will help businesses in industries such as banking, government, public sector and healthcare meet their customers’ needs, the regulatory requirements they are held to, and the need for local data residency and replication for business continuity.
A few of the customers moving to the Microsoft Cloud in the U.K. include the South London & Maudsley (SLAM) NHS Trust, the country’s largest mental health trust, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The MoD, which employs more than 250,000 people and will use Office 365 and Azure, citing both value for money and security as key reasons for the agreement.
Mike Stone, Chief Digital and Information Officer at the Ministry of Defence, said: “Microsoft’s secure and transparent cloud service in the UK fits perfectly with the MOD’s digital transformation agenda. This agreement, which is based on Microsoft’s world-class reliability and performance, will allow us to deliver cost-effective, modern and flexible information capabilities. It will ensure we are better-placed in our ever-changing, digital-first world.”
With the availability of our new U.K. regions, Azure now offers customers 28 regions — available today — with six more coming soon for a total of 34, more than any other major cloud provider. In addition, Microsoft Cloud services have earned the broadest set of compliance certifications and attestations of any public cloud provider. In the first half of 2017, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will join the currently available line up in the U.K.
Learn more about customers using the Microsoft Cloud in the United Kingdom at the UK News Centre and learn more about the benefits of our cloud services at Microsoft Azure and Office 365.