Introduction to Microsoft datacenter security
Microsoft delivers more than 200 cloud services to customers 24x7x365. Some examples are enterprise services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and consumer services such as Bing, MSN, Outlook.com, Skype, and Xbox Live. These services are hosted in Microsoft's cloud infrastructure: globally distributed datacenters, edge computing nodes, service operations centers, and one of the world's largest global networks; with an extensive fiber footprint connecting them all.
Since opening the first datacenter in 1989, Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in our infrastructure and remains focused on delivering reliable, scalable, and security-enhanced online services, while efficiently managing operations and costs as services grow. The result of these investments is a cloud offering with options allowing customers to meet country/region and government-specific requirements around the world. This includes our continued commitment to delivering the most trusted cloud for government in the United States. Our US government cloud includes hardened datacenters, geo-replication over 500 miles apart, and 24x7 monitoring by US screened personnel, all of which integrates with existing customer IT environments through the largest network of secure private connections, hybrid database and storage solutions, and data residency.
The datacenters that power our cloud offerings focus on high reliability, operational excellence, cost-effectiveness, environmental sustainability, and a trustworthy online experience for customers and partners worldwide. Microsoft regularly tests our datacenter security through both internal and third-party audits. As a result, the most highly regulated organizations in the world trust the Microsoft cloud, which is compliant with more certifications than any other cloud service provider.
Microsoft cloud services are built on a foundation of trust and security, with a priority focus on protecting customer data and applications in the cloud with state-of-the-art technology, processes, and encryption. Customer data is stored in Microsoft datacenters that are geographically distributed and protected by layers of in-depth logical and physical security measures. Microsoft datacenters are designed and operated to protect services and data from harm by natural disasters, environmental threats, or unauthorized access.
This module provides a detailed overview of the datacenter safeguards implemented by the Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO+I) team and the greater enterprise. These safeguards are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our cloud platform and the data within. To help ensure these safeguards operate effectively, we regularly verify our security posture through independent audits and compliance certifications.
Independent audits
Our cloud infrastructure and offerings meet a broad set of international and industry-specific compliance standards, such as ISO, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and SOC, as well as country/region-specific standards, like Australia's IRAP, UK's G-Cloud, and Singapore's MTCS. Rigorous, third-party audits verify our adherence to the strict security controls these standards mandate. Audit reports for our datacenter infrastructure and cloud offerings are available on the Service Trust Portal.
Regulatory compliance
We understand that for our customers to fully realize the benefits of the cloud, they must be able to trust their cloud service provider. Our infrastructure and suite of cloud services are built from the ground up to address the rigorous security and privacy requirements of our customers. We help our customers comply with national, regional, and industry-specific requirements governing the collection and use of individuals' data by providing the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings of any cloud service provider.