We all heard that Microsoft is opening an UK datacenter in 2016. Which is quite good to overcome some ‘boring’ law gaps regarding data issues. Even if data is encrypted at rest and in transit, some companies require data to be physically in UK, which breaks the whole notion of cloud.

Now Microsoft unveils a new datacenter in Germany to overcome the same kind of issues here. But the most interesting thing is that will be under  Deutsche Telekom control… wait! what ?!?!

These new cloud services will be a first of their kind innovation from a global hyper-scale cloud provider, in that access to customer data stored in these new datacenters will be under the control of T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, an independent German company acting as a data trustee. Microsoft will not be able to access this data without the permission of customers or the data trustee, and if permission is granted by the data trustee, will only do so under its supervision. “Microsoft is pioneering a new, unique, solution for customers in Germany and Europe”

So basically Microsoft called Deutsche Telekom and said to them; “we heard that you have a bunch of datacenters in Germany. ja?! we can give you our own software to manage your hardware and create an Azure compatible cloud with it. ja?! you’re going to own, manage it in the future and take ownership for any data misusage and we’ll just label it a German Azure region. ja?!”.

Smart. Fast. Nailed the data issue. Improves business. Leverages two brands. Leaves responsibility to who owns it. Creates the first Azure cloud white labeling solution. Gotta love Satya strategy!