Microsoft has revealed an expansion of native Azure services, with new cloud datacenters added in Germany. Of course, Azure already has a datacenter presence in Germany, but Microsoft is casting its net wider in the country.
As always, having a datacenter in-country will help companies in Germany have a native Azure platform. This includes full security across cloud products, such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365.
Microsoft says the expansion furthers its commitment to bring customers cloud data management, security, and storage that complies with local laws and is not taken out of country. In Germany, new regions match the country’s regulatory frameworks, like the form of Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5) attestation.
Microsoft says the introduction of new datacenters will allow German organizations to fully comply with European GDPR regulations.
Cloud Customers
In its announcement, Microsoft revealed how the expansion helps notable German customers:
- “Deutsche Bank, Germany’s leading bank, is leveraging our cloud services to accelerate the innovation of financial products and services while maintaining high-quality service and data security. With our collaboration, Deutsche Bank has developed a data platform that meets both international and local regulatory requirements while offering customers secure and cost-efficient services.
- Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, will play an integral role in onboarding customers to our new cloud regions in Germany.
- SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, will combine Microsoft Azure and SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud to provide solutions directly from Germany—for the “Intelligent Enterprise in the Intelligent Cloud.”
- Arvato Systems, a global IT specialist and multi-cloud service provider, is now able to offer their customers fully integrated Azure services with data retention in Germany, empowering the digital transformation of German medium-sized companies.”
South Africa Datacenters
Earlier this year, Microsoft expanded its Azure datacenter reach to Africa for the first time. The company revealed its new cloud regions in South Africa, located in Cape Town and Johannesburg, which provide local datacenters to companies in Africa.
These became the first datacenters Microsoft has opened in Africa. It allows organizations to use Microsoft Azure cloud services with region-held resources and connectivity.
