Microsoft Fabric Lands in US GovCloud, EU Still Searching for Equivalent
Microsoft has made its Fabric data platform available in the US Government Community Cloud High tier. The platform is now on public preview, with general availability from October 1st. This move marks a significant step for Microsoft's AI workloads.
Fabric unifies various types of data and provides an intelligence layer that recommends actions and automations. However, this development highlights the disparity in cloud certification schemes between the US and Europe.
The EU has been trying to agree on its equivalent since December 2020, but the process has stalled. The proposed scheme would have required EU hosting and European ownership, but a draft in March 2024 removed this requirement, leaving it up to national regulators.
Microsoft's own cloud certification was called into question by Anton Carniaux, Microsoft's legal director for France, who stated that the company cannot guarantee French data held under public contracts would stay beyond the reach of US authorities. This refers to the CLOUD Act rather than a Microsoft policy.