Azure Updates: EU Data Boundary; Azure Foundry; Elastic SAN

Microsoft CVP Julie Brill announced that Microsoft has implemented its EU Data Boundary for Microsoft Cloud. “With the completion of the boundary, our European commercial and public sector customers are now able to store and process their customer data and pseudonymized personal data for Microsoft core cloud services — including Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and most Azure services — within the EU and EFTA regions. In addition, Microsoft will store professional services data from technical support interactions for the core cloud services within the EU and EFTA regions,” she wrote.

The announcement marks the end of a multi-year process. Phase 1 launched in January, 2023 allowing localized storage for core services like the Microsoft Cloud Suite. This was followed by Phase 2 in January, 2024 with pseudonymized personal data. The announcement is part of a wider variety of investments in Europe like over 17 datacenters, Microsoft 365 Advanced Data Residency, European Cloud Principles, and Cloud for Sovereignty.

CVP Yonaton Zunger explored ways to secure generative AI models in Azure Foundry. He reassured customers that Microsoft does not use customer data to train shared models. The company also does not share logs or content with model providers. 

Microsoft hosts its AI platform offerings, AI Foundry and OpenAI Service, on its own servers without runtime connections to model providers. Some features like model fine-tuning allows customers to create better models that stay in their tenant. According to Zunger, malware analysis, vulnerability assessments, and backdoor detection are all ways to secure AI models. For its part, Microsoft does security investigations for key models before adding them to the AI Foundry Model Catalogue and isolates models within a customer’s tenant boundary. 

He wrote: