Microsoft’s cloud-orientated productivity suite, Office 365, is now being delivered locally through the software giant’s new South African data centres.

The move should mean improved performance as well as better regulatory compliance for South African businesses.

“Robust policies, controls and systems … will help keep data secure and comply with regulations,” Microsoft South Africa said in a statment.

“Office 365 provides in-country data residency for core customer data, for example, to help customers meet their data residency requirements,” it said.

“Core customer data is stored only in their data centre geography — in this case, the cloud data centres in South Africa. This is particularly important and relevant in industries such as healthcare, financial services and government, where organisations need to keep specific data in-country to comply with local regulations.”

Businesses that have been using Office 365 for years need not worry that the experience will change based on the location of their data.

‘Seamless’

“The Office 365 experience remains seamless because Microsoft’s continued investments in its global cloud network, global cloud infrastructure and services architecture help provide users with a singular, consistent experience independent of where their data is stored,” said Microsoft South Africa MD Lillian Barnard.