Commercial and public sector companies continue to seek methods to improve efficiency, create positive employee experiences and achieve organizational goals. The increase in the digital workforce and the struggling economic environment are driving organizations to use public cloud applications to find the cost reduction and efficiency they require. However, these businesses are understandably concerned about issues surrounding data residency, privacy, and security – and the plethora of national security laws and data residency requirements being pushed by national and regional authorities.
Microsoft leads the industry in assisting global organizations of all kinds to address their data residency, privacy, and security requirements. Microsoft provides the most robust compliance of any cloud service provider, offering 100-plus services, many geared towards specific countries and regions. Microsoft 365 now maintains local data centers in 15 countries, with plans to launch 13 additional local data center regions over the coming years. These centers represent unrivaled global coverage for customer data residency.
Microsoft 365 has a reputation for providing elegant customer data residency solutions. In 2021, Microsoft also announced a comprehensive commitment to creating an EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud, promising to process and store commercial and public sector data within the EU. This commitment includes Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365.
But given the rise of hybrid work and reliance on digital transformation, end users are asking for additional data controls, including where it resides.
Data Residency in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has over 270 million active monthly users, making it a vital tool for communication, collaboration and enabling the remote workforce. Microsoft will now be adding Teams to the data commitments in Product Terms for all 15 local data center regions. With this extension, Teams chat messages and meeting recordings, will be stored in local datacenter regions.
Microsoft also announced a new Microsoft 365 Advanced Data Residency add-on, designed to provide additional guarantees to regulated commercial and public sector customers to help with compliance efforts. It will offer premium services to eligible customers. Looking ahead, Microsoft is committed to further building on the inherent value and services available for Microsoft 365 customers with the Advanced Data Residency add-on and other data residency offerings. Microsoft will continue to invest in and roll out data residency, privacy, and security advancements that will ultimately permit customers to have peace of mind in the ever-changing compliance landscape environment. Through the local data center region expansion, improvements in data residency offerings across the Microsoft 365 platform, and connection to the Microsoft cloud, the company is poised to assist customers globally to accelerate and enhance their digital transformation.
Alliance IT provides support for all these services via cloud computing, the utilization of hardware or software delivered over a network. When companies are interested in the necessary installation and maintenance of equipment or applications for cloud services, it can be overwhelming and may cause them to delay the project. However, your business could be saving significant amounts of money by shifting strategic applications and data storage to the cloud. In addition to freeing up budget dollars, companies can enhance data and network security, erase the risk of downtime, and create a more cost-effective business continuity (disaster recovery) solution simultaneously.
Call Alliance IT today to learn more.
