Microsoft: Company Announces Data Centers in Germany to Avoid US Government Surveillance:
BERLIN: Information that customers enter into Internet-based Microsoft software for company and office programs will probably be saved in two data centers shepherded by Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany’s biggest telecommunications group. Microsoft is going to be allowed access to this data if it’s given permission by the client or Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems subsidiary company, that will control access to the data. If T Systems allows access, Microsoft would just carry on under oversight. Microsoft had announced plans to provide cloud services from U.K.-based data centers a day before.
The German data centers will “offer customers alternative and trust in how their information is managed and where it’s kept,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella.
The statement came weeks following the European Court of Justice struck down an arrangement between the U.S. and European Union that had permitted the transport of Europeans’ private data to the U.S. German data protection authorities, following the opinion, said they wouldn’t let any new data transfers to the U.S.
The opinion by the highest court of the EU has upended technology strategies for a lot of trans Atlantic businesses. “It undermines all companies,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker during a recent visit to Germany.
“In Europe, there’s essential disbelief toward cloud services and transport of information outside the European judicial region,” Mr. Mickeleit said. With the brand new service, Microsoft reacts to customer demand for national data storage, he added.
Microsoft said 83% of German companies anticipate their cloud supplier to manage data centers in Germany, based on a study by German business group Bitkom.
The brand new service will soon be accessible to customers in some nearby states and the EU from the 2nd half of next year. Microsoft programs like Azure Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online will be delivered from data centers in Magdeburg and Frankfurt.
“We’re investing in Germany as a centre of IT business because German data protection standards are exceptionally valued,” said Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Tim Hottges, when starting a data center near Magdeburg this past year.
Microsoft’s activities also come after a U.S. judge ordered the business last year to turn over customer’s e-mails that it kept in Ireland for a narcotics probe.
A fresh law in Russia requires businesses including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to keep and process data about Russian users within the state’s boundaries.
Microsoft said Office 365 and Azure would be accessible from U.K.-based data centers late next year. It’d enable data to be duplicated within the U.K. for back-up and restoration with decreased network space and lower latency.
