Microsoft have announced, via the Office 365 blogs site that new, UK-based, Office 365 customers will now have data hosted in UK data centres.

Microsoft host Office 365 services in data centres globally, with a customer’s information held in the most geographically close location to their billing address. From today UK-based companies who sign up for Microsoft Office 365 (Business or Enterprise)will have services hosted in UK data centres based in London or Durham.

These data centres offer Exchange Email and SharePoint Online cloud storage, with other Microsoft Office 365 services held in EU data centres (usually Ireland). Microsoft publish a map of global data centre locations for you to see which services are hosted at your closest location.

In some sectors it’s essential customer data is stored in a local cloud location, or one that is covered by data protection best practice rules. To check how Microsoft Office meets legal compliance requirements visit the Microsoft Trust Center