The UK data centres also mean Microsoft is able to offer its online suite of Office 365 productivity apps without sending data overseas.
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The Ministry of Defence (MoD), which employs around 250,000 people, will use Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure cloud services, with the Government citing value for money and security as key reasons for the agreement. Other customers who’ll be localizing their Microsoft data include luxury sports auto maker Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., an existing Office 365 customer, as well as business process management and outsourcing firm Capita Plc, and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Geographic proximity is one of the ways by which cloud service providers are attempting to overpass each other.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and an NHS trust are already using the London, Durham, and Cardiff facilities, which were first announced by Microsoft last November. “We are looking to seamlessly and significantly expand the consumption of cloud services, while empowering partners to effectively scale their businesses”.
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Although this change could prompt fears for United Kingdom data, since Microsoft is an American company and therefore beholden to many USA laws regarding data, the MoD assures us that all is well and that the security will actually be improved by the move. Along with Google and Salesforce, Microsoft has endorsed the EU-US Privacy Shield, the EU’s set of rules created to replace Safe Harbor, the framework for governing data privacy for companies that move private information between data centers on different sides of the Atlantic that was recently annulled.
Initially, MoD staff will not be allowed to store classified documents on Microsoft’s cloud, but that restriction could be relaxed over time, Stone said. In return, the MoD has been able to push Microsoft at the highest levels to deliver.
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Microsoft said it expects legal services, banking, utilities and other regulated sectors to be drawn to its UK-based cloud services. “That’s good leverage to get things done if there are any rollout problems”. Fortune notes that local storage of data has become more desirable as American tech firms have grown dominant and after U.S. NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed mass government surveillance, stirring public concern over security, data privacy, and national sovereignty.
