One year ago, at a landmark speech in Brussels, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith shared a new set of principles – Microsoft’s European Cloud Principles – to guide all aspects of Microsoft’s cloud business in Europe, enhance transparency for the public and help us better support Europe’s technology needs.
We made a commitment to:
- Ensure our public cloud meets Europe’s needs and serves Europe’s values.
- Ensure our cloud provides a platform for the success of European software developers.
- Partner with and support European cloud solution providers.
- Ensure our cloud offerings meet European governments’ sovereign needs, in partnership with local trusted technology providers.
- Recognize that European governments are regulating technology and we will adapt to and support these efforts.
Following a year of listening to feedback and of taking action, Ralph Haupter, President of Microsoft EMEA shared an update on the work that has taken place in the last year based on the European Cloud Principles.
Here is an overview of some of the progress to date:
- Ongoing investments in our data center footprint in Europe and the opening of our first cloud region in Central and Eastern Europe, located in Poland.
- Based on feedback from European Cloud Providers, we updated our global licensing terms and Cloud Solution Provider Program to allow for hosting any solution on any European cloud provider’s local infrastructure. To date, more than 75 European cloud providers have signed up for this program. We also established a new support team dedicated to the cloud provider community in Europe and sought ongoing feedback, including through the European Cloud Alliance and local trade associations.
- Expansion of existing local data storage and processing commitments for the Microsoft Cloud through roll-out of the EU Data Boundary for Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365 services.
- Announcing Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty for government customers looking to harness the power of the public cloud while meeting specific compliance, security and policy requirements. Since the announcement, we have delivered two private-preview releases. We have worked with trusted partners in local markets including Leonardo in Italy, Proximus in Belgium, and Telefonica in Spain, and continue to work with governments and other trusted partners across Europe and offered key learnings.
- We pledged to support the EU Cybersecurity Skills Academy by committing to train 100,000 people in Europe with cybersecurity skills over two years.
See the full update in Ralph Haupter’s LinkedIn post here.
It has been a year of progress, but this is only a milestone as our work is far from complete. We are still committed to listening, learning, and improving and we’ll be sharing updates on further developments in the year to come. In this ongoing journey, we look forward to continuing feedback from European cloud providers, customers, and regulators.