Microsoft Sovereign Cloud Enhances Governance and Productivity for Disconnected Large-Scale AI Models, Announces CEO Satya Nadella

London, February 24: Microsoft has announced a significant expansion of its Sovereign Cloud capabilities, allowing organisations to run mission-critical infrastructure, core productivity tools, and large-scale AI models in fully disconnected environments. The updates are designed to meet the rigorous digital sovereignty requirements of governments, the public sector, and highly regulated industries that must operate without public cloud connectivity.

The announcement, made during an event in London, introduces a unified "Sovereign Private Cloud" stack. This framework enables enterprises to maintain consistent governance and security policies while keeping data, identities, and operations entirely within their own physical and operational boundaries. WhatsApp To Introduce Mandatory SIM Binding in India, New ‘Liquid Glass’ Interface for iOS Beta Users Spotted.

Microsoft Resilient Infrastructure with Azure Local

At the foundation of this expansion is the general availability of Azure Local disconnected operations. This feature allows organisations to run critical infrastructure with standard Azure governance and policy controls without requiring a connection to the internet or public cloud services.

By utilising familiar Azure experiences locally, services can continue to operate securely even in isolated or classified environments. Microsoft noted that Azure Local is designed to scale from small deployments to larger footprints capable of supporting data-intensive and AI-driven workloads, ensuring operational continuity under real-world risk conditions.

Microsoft Productivity and Collaboration Offline

To ensure workforce continuity in sovereign environments, the company introduced Microsoft 365 Local. This solution brings core server workloads, including Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server, directly into a customer’s sovereign boundary.

Microsoft has committed to supporting these local server workloads through at least 2035. This ensures that teams can communicate and share information securely within the same controlled boundary as their infrastructure, maintaining full control over data resiliency and compliance without depending on external cloud access.

Bringing Large AI Models to Sovereign Boundaries

Perhaps the most significant technical update is the addition of modern infrastructure and large AI model support to Foundry Local. Organisations can now deploy multimodal, large-scale AI models on their own hardware using specialised GPUs from partners such as NVIDIA.

This enables powerful local AI inferencing and API operations to run completely within customer-controlled data boundaries. Unlike previous iterations that focused on smaller models, this update allows for the use of advanced, large-scale generative AI tools in environments where external connectivity is intentionally restricted for security or strategic reasons.

Strategic Necessity for Digital Sovereignty

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasised that the company is building a comprehensive platform to help countries and organisations meet evolving regulatory and security needs. For markets like Luxembourg, where digital sovereignty is a strategic necessity, these updates provide the autonomy and trust required for high-stakes innovation. Canva Acquires Cavalry and MangoAI To Strengthen AI Video Tools and Animation Capabilities.

The new capabilities aim to provide a "full stack" experience that remains resilient across connected, intermittently connected, and fully disconnected modes. By standardising operational practices across these environments, Microsoft intends to simplify the management of sovereign clouds without compromising on the power of modern cloud technology.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 24, 2026 06:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).