Microsoft has announced new sovereign private cloud capabilities that enable governments and regulated industries to run advanced artificial intelligence (AI), productivity tools and cloud infrastructure securely, including in fully disconnected environments.
Key developments include:
- Azure Local disconnected operations – allowing organisations to run mission-critical infrastructure locally with Azure governance and policy controls, even without cloud connectivity.
- Microsoft 365 Local disconnected – enabling core productivity workloads, including Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Skype for Business Server, to operate entirely within a customer’s sovereign boundary.
- Foundry Local with support for large AI models – bringing modern infrastructure and large, multimodal AI models into fully disconnected sovereign environments, allowing AI inferencing to run locally on customer-controlled hardware.
“As South Africa accelerates its digital transformation journey, we are working closely with government and leading organisations to advance the country’s national digital and AI priorities,” says Asif Valley, national technology officer at Microsoft South Africa.
“The introduction of Microsoft Sovereign Cloud capabilities is an important milestone, empowering our customers to adopt advanced AI and cloud innovation while maintaining complete control over their data, infrastructure and operations.
“By enabling both connected and fully disconnected environments, Microsoft is supporting South Africa in building resilient, future‑ready digital ecosystems,” he adds. “These capabilities align strongly with national priorities for sovereignty, security and inclusive economic growth, ensuring that South Africa can harness AI responsibly and securely.”