Microsoft launches ‘sovereign’ cloud for governments
On Tuesday, Microsoft rolled out a public cloud for government customers, offering greater control over their data, and signed contracts with Italian defense group Leonardo and telecommunications company Proximus of Belgium as a partner.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a digital transformation in many public sector organizations, and Microsoft is expected to use its “Cloud for Sovereignty” to better compete with rivals like Amazon Web Services and Google’s Alphabet.
According to market research firm Imarc Group, the size of the global government cloud market is expected to reach $71.2 billion by 2027 from $27.6 billion in 2021.
“We expect customers around the world…but some of the first customers are coming in Europe,” the company’s vice president, Corey Sanders, said in an interview, adding that the company We’re doing a private preview with a customer.
The European Union has been at the forefront of privacy and security legislation, and its privacy watchdog launched an investigation earlier this year into the region’s use of cloud-based services. public to check that they are complying with their privacy protections.
Both enterprise and government customers are increasingly using big tech companies’ data centers in the form of public clouds rather than building their own infrastructure.
In addition to the latest technology capabilities and lower costs, Microsoft says its cloud product will fulfill the obligations of data management, security controls, citizen privacy, residence of data and other legal requirements.
The company is also working with other local partners to provide tailor-made clouds for local governments.
