Why do the Microsoft national clouds exist?
It is primarily banks, insurance companies, and public authorities that must meet specific data protection and security requirements. Cloud solutions have long been regarded as unsuitable for them, as these could not provide the requisite level of data protection. This is why they were unable to benefit from the advantages of the cloud, such as lower costs, increased flexibility, a high level of scalability, and reduced pressure on their own infrastructure.
However, the situation looks different today. Microsoft has reacted to the requirements and established local data centers with an appropriate level of protection. These include the following Microsoft cloud environments:
- US Government Community Cloud, which meets the requirements of US government authorities, including:
- GCC IL4: Impact Level 4 (GCC High)
- GCC IL5: Impact Level 5 (Department of Defense), which can also be used by the Department of Defense
- Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 Cloud China, operated by 21Vianet in China
The national cloud environments are isolated, geographically restricted, and operated by local teams. Each national cloud is unique and displays differences – when registering applications, retrieving tokens, and calling up the Microsoft Graph API, for example.