Microsoft’s Cloud in Brexit Britain — New Azure and Office 365 DCs for UK

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Microsoft Azure and Office 365 hosted in the UK for the first time. Redmond just opened up three new data centers in England and Wales, arranged in two Azure regions.

This brings the number of Regions to 28 globally. Among the launch customers are Aston Martin, a regional health authority, and the Ministry of Defence [sic].

This should give a boost to Microsoft’s data-sovereignty story. In today’s IT Newspro, we’re shaken, not stirred.

Your humble newswatcher curated these news nuggets for your entertainment. Not to mention: McQ fail…

What’s the craic? Aunty Beeb speaks peace unto nation: [You’re fired -Ed.]

Its first UK cloud computing data centres…are located in London, Durham and Cardiff. … Microsoft first revealed its plan to set up UK-based data centres last November.
…
The UK data centres…mean Microsoft is able to offer [Azure] without sending data overseas. … Microsoft is, however, [battling] the US government, which believes it has the right to force [it] to surrender data…held overseas.
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Amazon is set to open its own rival UK data centres…but is yet to confirm when. … Its AWS cloud computing division remains more popular than Azure.

Tell me more. Frederic Lardinois renders Microsoft opens its UK data center region:

The new region…offers support for…Azure cloud services and Office 365, with…Dynamics CRM Online slated for the first half of 2017. … Azure now offers…28 regions and it…has plans [for] six more.
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Data sovereignty is becoming an increasingly important issue. … Microsoft stressed that these new regions are compliant with the ISO 27018 standard for cloud privacy [and] with the new…Privacy Shield framework, the replacement for…Safe Harbor.

In fact, it’s two new regions. Or so says Liam Tung—Microsoft’s two new cloud regions tackle data privacy:

Microsoft has officially opened two new cloud regions…UK West and UK South. … The new regions…of course also will be able to serve London’s massive financial services industry.
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Microsoft today highlighted its recent victory…quashing a warrant for access to email stored…in Ireland. … [It also has] two new datacenters in Germany slated for launch…operated by ‘data trustee’…T-Systems. Under this arrangement…any government request for such data will need to go through T-Systems.

But how did we get here? Louis Columbus sailed the ocean blue picks Seven Ways Microsoft Redefined Azure For The Enterprise:

Microsoft Azure has achieved 100%…revenue growth and now has the 2nd largest market share. … AWS and Microsoft Azure have proven their ability…and are the two most-evaluated cloud platforms. … Of the two, Microsoft Azure is gaining momentum in the enterprise.
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Only Microsoft is coming at selling Cloud Services…from the standpoint of how they can help do what senior management…want most. … Azure is winning [because of its] support for legacy Microsoft architectures that enterprises standardized…on years before. … Azure is also accelerating…due to the pervasive adoption…of Office365.
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From a leading telecom provider…looking to scale throughout Asia to financial services firms…looking to address Brexit issues…nearly every enterprise…roadmap is based on global scalability and regional requirements. … Microsoft has 108 data centers globally.

So what does it all mean? David “wyrdfish” Watson means Brexit:

The UK will not be under EU data protection law [but] most EU business will have a requirement for that. … Data hosted in the UK will have to move [probably] to Ireland. … On the other hand [UK] data-protection laws could be made more attractive…meaning microsoft could have just made a shrewd move.

But surely Brexit doesn’t automagically invalidate existing laws? ニヤは猫じゃない purrs, contentedly:

The [UK Data Protection Act] was enacted as a result of an EU directive. … Surely we’re under EU DP law regardless?

So it’s all about the Brexit, baby? Officially, no. Peter Gothard sounds disappointed he can’t use that angle—Brexit vote had ‘no impact’:

Microsoft’s UK COO [said it] had “no impact on the decision” to open UK data centres. … Nicola Hodson said that Microsoft is looking to “upgrade the digital fabric in the UK.”
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“We have a set of principles…around security, privacy, compliance, transparency and availability. … We’ll just have to wait and see how [Brexit] unfolds,” she said..

OK, anything else we should know? Cliff Saran wraps it up:

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) [is] among the first organisations to…host its infrastructure in Microsoft’s UK cloud. [But] Microsoft will be running a private instance of Azure for the MoD. … The MoD will be the anchor tenant.

Buffer Overflow

More great links from Petri, IT Unity, Thurrott and abroad:

• Microsoft Is Preparing To Take On Slack With Skype Teams
• Microsoft Sees Strong Support For Legal Case Against Government Secrecy
• How Does SharePoint Framework Know Which Web Part to Run?
• How to Insert Symbols and Special Characters in Word
• The Windows Mobile Manifesto
• LG unveils V20 5.7-inch phone with Android 7.0 Nougat, secondary “ticker” screen
• Previously in IT Newspro

And Finally

McQ Fail! [warning: Contains scenes of badly-poured beer]

Main image credit: Sony/MGM/Columbia/Eon/Danjaq/B24

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