IoT Central

Azure in Germany–a complete EU cloud computing solution

With my earlier article Azure in China, it came in to my interest to look for any other country/region specific independent cloud data center requirements. I came across Azure for US Govt(Similar to Amazon Govt Cloud) instance and Azure Germany data center. For this article context I will be covering only Azure in Germany.

What is Azure Germany?

Just like regional regulatory requirements in China, Germany also wanted a completely locally owned/managed Azure Data Center for EU/EFTA/UK requirements. This is also to ensure stricter access control and data access policy measurements. This approach is to enable organizations doing business in EU/EFTA and UK can better harness the power of cloud computing.

All customer data and related applications and hardware reside in Germany
Geo-replication between datacenters in Germany to support business continuity
Highly secured datacenters provide 24×7 monitoring
It meets all Public sector or restricted industry requirements
Follows all Compliance requirements for EU/EFTA and UK.
Lower cost, locally accessible within your business locations in Germany/EU.

“ Azure Germany is an isolated Azure instance in Germany, independent from other public clouds.”

Who controls it?

An independent data trustee controls access to all customer data in the Azure Germany datacenters. T-Systems International GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and an experienced, well-respected IT provider incorporated in Germany, serves as trustee, protecting disclosure of data to third parties except as the customer directs or as required by German law.

** Even Microsoft does not have access to customer data or the datacenters without approval from and supervision by the German data trustee.

What Compliance?

Azure Germany has an ongoing commitment to maintaining the strictest data protection measures, so organizations can store and manage customer data in compliance with applicable German laws and regulations, as well as key international standards. Additional compliance standards and controls that address the unique role of the German data trustee will be audited over time. Refer to: Microsoft Trust Center compliance.

[Source : Microsoft Azure]

Useful Links:

IoT Central–Microsoft’s SaaS solution for IoT

Microsoft has today released their IoT SaaS offering for customers and partners called as “Microsoft IoT Central”. IoT Central enables powerful IoT scenarios without requiring cloud solution expertise and also simplifies the development process and makes customers to make quick time to market solutions, making digital transformation more accessible to everyone without overhead of implement solutions end to end.

As per Microsoft :

“IoT Central provides an easier way to create connected products that propel digital business. Take the complexity out of the Internet of Things (IoT) with a true, end-to-end IoT software as a service (SaaS) solution in the cloud that helps you build, use, and maintain smart products.”

Benefits of IoT Central:

Proven platform and technology with enterprise grade security.
Reduced complexities of setting up and maintaining IoT infrastructure and solutions.
Building smart connected products with lesser cost and lesser overhead would ensure higher customer satisfaction.
Quickly adapt to changing environments.

For those would need control on implementing end to end can still choose the PaaS solution Azure IoT Suite.

Below is a picture from @JanakiramMSV’s article from forbes.com, to help you have a high level look at all the IoT offerings from Microsoft.