Microsoft Sovereign Cloud adds governance, productivity, and support for large AI models securely running even when completely disconnected
As digital sovereignty becomes increasingly vital, organisations are reconsidering their strategies for deploying essential infrastructure and AI capabilities amidst stricter regulations and heightened risks. Microsoft’s commitment to sovereignty supports enterprises, public sectors, and regulated industries by enabling secure and independent participation in the digital economy. The Microsoft Sovereign Cloud integrates productivity, security, and cloud services across both public and private environments. Customers can select the appropriate control measures for each workload through a range of sovereign options, ensuring their architecture remains cohesive and operational risks are minimised. Trust hinges on the assurance that data remains secure, controls are enforceable, and operations can persist under real-world conditions.
To facilitate these secure environments, Microsoft provides comprehensive capabilities that cater to customers operating in connected, intermittently connected, and fully disconnected modes. Recent enhancements include three key updates:
- Azure Local disconnected operations (now available) – Organisations can now operate mission-critical infrastructure while adhering to Azure governance and policy, without needing cloud connectivity. This optimises continuity for sovereign, classified, or isolated environments.
- Microsoft 365 Local disconnected (now available) – Essential productivity applications like Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server can now function entirely within the customer’s sovereign operational boundary on Azure Local, ensuring teams remain productive even without cloud access.
- Foundry Local enhances modern infrastructure capabilities and supports large AI models – Organisations can now introduce extensive AI models into completely disconnected, sovereign environments using Foundry Local. By leveraging cutting-edge infrastructure from partners like NVIDIA, customers with sovereignty needs can run multimodal models on their own hardware, facilitating powerful local AI operations even in isolated settings.
This presents a thoroughly localised, end-to-end solution grounded in Azure Local infrastructure and Microsoft 365 Local services, designed to maintain resilience in any connectivity circumstance. Large models can be utilised within Foundry Local, extending capabilities to run advanced multimodal models locally and securely, even when completely disconnected. Customers can now ensure uninterrupted operations, safeguarding mission-critical workloads, and implementing consistent governance and policy enforcement, while ensuring data, identities, and operations remain secure within their designated boundaries.
Azure Local manages critical infrastructure locally, even offline
For workloads with specific needs, Azure Local provides a solid on-premises foundation with consistent Azure governance and policy controls. With Azure Local disconnected operations, management and workload execution are confined to customer-operated environments, which ensures services remain secure even during isolation or lack of connectivity. By using familiar Azure functionalities and consistent policies, organisations can manage and deploy workloads locally without relying on continuous access to public cloud services. Azure Local is tailored to scale from smaller installations to larger setups that support data-intensive and AI-centric workloads. Customers can start quickly, scale gradually, and retain a unified operational model—all within their sovereign boundary.
Working in isolated settings often reveals limitations beyond traditional cloud assumptions: unacceptable external dependencies, intentional connectivity restrictions, and the imperative of operational continuity.
“The introduction of Azure Local disconnected operations signifies a major advancement for organisations requiring data control without relinquishing the advantages of the Microsoft Cloud. For Luxembourg, where digital sovereignty is more than a principle but a strategic necessity, this model provides the resilience, independence, and trust expected in our market. By merging Microsoft’s technological prowess with Proximus NXT’s expertise in sovereign cloud, we are empowering our clients to innovate confidently—even in completely disconnected modes,” noted Gerard Hoffmann, CEO of Proximus Luxembourg.
Microsoft 365 Local ensures productivity and collaboration in fully disconnected settings
As sovereign environments evolve to operate offline, maintaining productivity becomes essential alongside infrastructure stability. Building on over a decade of delivering these services, Microsoft 365 Local disconnected provides continuity at the productivity layer by offering Microsoft’s core server functionalities—Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server—operating directly within the customer’s sovereign private cloud for the foreseeable future.
With Microsoft 365 Local, teams can securely communicate, share knowledge, and collaborate within the same controlled environment as their infrastructure and AI workloads. Everything operates locally under customer-defined policies, ensuring complete oversight of data resilience, access, and compliance. By integrating Azure-consistent management and governance, customers receive the reliable productivity experience they depend on, designed to remain robust and secure even when offline.
Integrating advanced models and modern infrastructure with Foundry Local
With the rollout of larger models and contemporary infrastructure in the Foundry Local portfolio, Microsoft is empowering customers in highly secure environments to run multimodal, large models directly within their sovereign private cloud. This integration brings Microsoft’s extensive enterprise AI capabilities to on-premises systems, complete with local inferencing and APIs that operate entirely within customer-controlled data boundaries.
Moving beyond smaller models, the combination of Foundry Local with Azure Local is designed to facilitate large-scale models utilising cutting-edge GPUs from partners like NVIDIA. Microsoft will support deployments, updates, and operational health comprehensively. As inferencing demands escalate over time, customers will retain complete control over their data and hardware.
Flexibility and control without unnecessary complexity
Customers facing stringent sovereignty and regulatory demands understand that a fully disconnected sovereign private cloud is a critical business requirement. Microsoft Sovereign Private Cloud is specifically designed to address these needs, facilitating secure, compliant operations even in environments devoid of external connectivity. We also recognise that disconnected environments vary; some customers may operate across connected, hybrid, and disconnected modes based on their mission, risk factors, and regulations. Our strategy assists customers in meeting strict sovereign obligations in fully disconnected scenarios without compromising on simplicity, while also offering flexibility where connectivity is feasible. Together, Azure Local disconnected operations, Microsoft 365 Local, and Foundry Local empower organisations to determine where workloads are executed and how environments are overseen while standardising governance and operational practices across both connected and disconnected setups.
Get Started
- Azure Local disconnected operations and Microsoft 365 Local disconnected are now available globally, and large models on Foundry Local can be accessed by qualifying customers.
Douglas Phillips leads global engineering initiatives for Microsoft’s specialised, sovereign, and private clouds. He oversees Microsoft’s worldwide strategy, products, and operations that deliver cutting-edge solutions, including Azure, our adaptive cloud portfolio, and Microsoft 365 collaboration suite, to customers with enhanced sovereignty, security, edge and compliance needs.
Share this content:
