In February 2025, Europe turned to the Microsoft sovereign cloud for data control but reliance on US tech continues to raise doubts amid political tension and the quest for digital independence.
It is a simple idea to cache data on European servers and place them under local organizations’ jurisdictions, but the foundation is still Microsoft’s for EU cloud tech.
French telecom operator Orange and IT services provider Capgemini launched the Bleu cloud in 2023, positioning it as a “trusted cloud” for France. It runs on Microsoft’s platform i.e., Microsoft 365 and Azure but with everything cached inside France.
Orange insisted that “Bleu’s cloud infrastructure is entirely independent of Microsoft, and Microsoft does not have access to the service platform or customer data.”
But even if, against all odds, Microsoft government cloud contract was forced by US legislation or political pressure to switch off European services, the software giant insisted that it would retaliate albeit not at all costs. That, from the perspective of most European politicians, places a question mark above the “sovereign” status of the cloud which Microsoft blames EU for.
Political Tensions Mixed with Frustrations
Pressure is mounting, with political unrest on the other side of the Atlantic. Donald Trump’s return to the global stage – with tough talk on allies and unpredictable moves – has only heightened fears that US companies could one day be forced to pull services or comply with foreign directives. Microsoft cloud for government even acknowledged the possibility, terming it “unlikely” but promising to battle any order “vigorously” in the courts.
Though these risks are present, EU data boundary for the Microsoft cloud has no actual choice. Building an equivalent platform from the ground up would require investment on a scale that few can afford. Microsoft sovereign cloud spent $44.5 billion on infrastructure in its last fiscal year alone, an amount well out of the reach of any European cloud competitor.
That hasn’t stopped telecom companies from trying, as the French telco developed its own Orange Telco Cloud (OTC), while Germany’s Deutsche Telekom created T-CaaS for containers-as-a-service. British Telecom (BT) in the UK has legally blocked public cloud use for critical network functions, citing data control concerns.
“Where your customer data has gone is the overriding worry for me,” said BT’s security chief, Howard Watson. “If there’s an outage, you’re waiting for somebody else to fix it.”
And yet, the charm of hyperscale’s like Microsoft sovereign cloud, Amazon, and Google remains strong. Their high-end AI applications, scalability, and global networks are difficult to match. Telefónica Germany is already transferring some of its 5G core to Amazon Web Services (AWS) locally hosted infrastructure, an indicator of the attractiveness of performance over politics.
The EU data boundary Microsoft reliance on US cloud providers is unlikely to disappear overnight, but with rising geopolitical tensions and growing awareness of digital dependence, the push for a cloud that’s truly sovereign is no longer just technical it’s political.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Tech sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.