July 20, 2022
Microsoft has unveiled a public cloud for government customers. Microsoft’s sovereign cloud gives users greater control over their data and provides cloud solutions at a lower cost.
Sovereign clouds are clouds built and operated in a particular country or region. They serve as an intermediary solution between a federal government and public cloud providers such as Oracle, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.
Microsoft said that its cloud product would meet obligations in the areas of data governance, security controls, citizen privacy, data residency and other legal requirements. Microsoft is also working with other local partners to provide customized clouds to local governments.
“We do expect customers around the world… but the first few customers have been in Europe,” corporate vice president Corey Sanders said in an interview.
Sanders went on to explain that the company is conducting private previews with customers. Microsoft has signed up Italian defence group Leonardo and Belgium telecoms firm Proximus as partners.
In general, the global cloud market is growing at a rapid pace, with experts predicting a market capitalization of US$1 trillion by 2028. According to the IMARC Group, the global government cloud market reached a value of US$27.6 billion in 2021, and the market is expected to reach a value of US$71.2 billion by 2027.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
