Microsoft no longer allows new customers to a service created in 2015. This made it possible to use German data centers, which Microsoft had managed by a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom in order to shield data.
Microsoft reports that those data centers are cut off from its international network and that access to data stored there is controlled by a German data trustee. It writes: “Over the past three years, customer demands have changed and the isolation of the Microsoft Cloud Germany limits its ability to provide the flexibility and resiliency that customers demand.” Therefore, it will no longer allow new customers to this service, nor will it add new services to the current offering. Existing customers can continue to use the service and receive security updates.
In the message, Microsoft refers to its new German data center regions announced in March, which must offer Azure from the end of 2019. It had announced the dedicated data centers in 2015. Customers could use this at an additional cost. Management was in the hands of a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. As a result, European legislation applies to the data centers and it was possible, through the intervention of another company, to refuse requests from governments, for example. Microsoft itself also did not have access to the data.
That development took place against the background of a lawsuit, in which the US government wanted access to e-mails that Microsoft had stored in Ireland. Microsoft refused that request in 2014. The case was supposed to be heard by the highest American court early this year, but that did not happen. This was due to the introduction of the US Cloud Act in March, which is intended to make access to data in criminal investigations easier. The US government made a new request for the data under the new law, rendering the lawsuit irrelevant. Microsoft agreed.