Shubham Sawarkar
Microsoft and Telefónica Tech will offer private hybrid cloud solutions to Public Administrations in Spain. Spanish public administrations and firms in regulated industries will be able to respond to the needs of digital sovereignty thanks to the two organizations’ combined solutions.
The move will give regulated manufacturing businesses like pharmaceuticals, aviation, defense, and health devices secure access to low-latency hybrid cloud solutions, as well as healthcare, city, critical infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications, as well as public administrations.
With Microsoft’s Confidential Computing technology and Telefonica Tech’s cyber threat monitoring and management capabilities, Telefonica Tech and Microsoft exceed demanding EU and Spanish legal and technical criteria for cloud trust principles.
To establish and operate the cloud services, Telefónica Tech will provide professional and managed advice, implementation, and operational services, which will be marketed through Telefónica Empresas.
Microsoft and Telefónica Tech will provide the finest cloud computing and infrastructure services to public sector organizations, including Defense, and companies in regulated environments, allowing them to accelerate their digital transformation plans while adhering to the European Data Protection Board’s data protection provisions and recommendations (EDPB).
Through a set of technologies and certifications, Microsoft provides the best privacy safeguards and satisfies the needs of digital sovereignty.
Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 all have high-level National Security Scheme accreditation, and the business has made a contractual promise to legally fight any government access to its enterprise and public sector clients’ data.
Microsoft also unveiled the EU Data Boundary initiative, which would allow customers to keep and handle their personal data within the European Union. This pledge applies to the cloud services Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365.
Telefónica Tech, for its part, will provide advice and support, implementation, and operation services to enable the deployment of high-security cloud services within the scope of government agencies and businesses operating in regulated environments, while ensuring that information privacy, quality of service, and regulatory compliance requirements are met at all times.
With the goal of ensuring a rapid and secure adoption of cloud services by various organizations and institutions, Telefónica Tech will complement the joint offer of both with value-added services such as intelligent management of communications and infrastructures or monitoring and management of cyber threats from its Cybersecurity Operations Centre.
It will also provide specialized consulting services for the design, deployment, and operation of Big Data platforms on Microsoft Azure Cloud capabilities, as well as assisting government agencies and businesses in regulated environments with the definition and implementation of their data and artificial intelligence strategies and contributing to the development of specific use cases.
In addition, unique solutions for the Defense industry will be available, combining Telefónica’s 5G connectivity solutions with Microsoft cloud services, enabling innovation in contexts with strong security and regulatory standards.
All of these services will be implemented in Microsoft’s current cloud settings and will be supplemented by the future availability of Microsoft’s new Cloud Region in Spain, which will leverage Telefónica’s existing infrastructure, as announced in February 2020.
As a result, the two organizations’ connections will be strengthened and expanded to aid in the digital transformation of public and private entities of all sizes, allowing them to innovate, grow, and transfer their businesses to the cloud in a secure manner.
José Cerdán, CEO of Telefónica Tech, said: “We believe that the alliance between Microsoft and Telefónica is a giant step forward in enabling the digital transformation of the public sector and, in general, of the country. The combination of Microsoft’s technology with Telefónica’s service, management and control capabilities guarantees both sovereignty and privacy as well as scalability and the evolution of infrastructures and citizen services, all with the highest level of quality”.
Alberto Granados, president of Microsoft Spain, said: “At Microsoft we have long demonstrated our commitment to meeting and exceeding the data protection requirements of the European Union. This joint value proposition with Telefónica to provide confidential hybrid cloud solutions responds to the needs of digital sovereignty and demonstrates that we continue to make progress on this commitment.”
In 2016, Microsoft became the first hyperscale cloud provider to be certified as compliant with the National Security Scheme’s high level, proving the company’s commitment to providing cloud technologies that meet the most stringent security requirements.
This certification is valid for all three Microsoft public clouds: Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365. It was also the first company to cooperate with Intel and AMD to deliver Confidential Computing services. These Microsoft cloud services supplement existing data protection in transit and at rest, as well as data protection in use, to provide maximum privacy.
In addition, the company provides advanced encryption services to supplement the basic encryption measures, such as managed and dedicated hardware security module (HSM) services, which allow the implementation of encryption systems using keys provided and managed by the customer or a third party, in this case, Telefónica.
Telefónica Tech facilitates the adoption of technology through its Cybersecurity, Cloud, IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain services, thanks to its expertise and experience. It handles more than 30,000 servers and analyses more than 100 million cybersecurity incidents per year from 11 specialized Digital Operations Centres (DOC) with 24×7 services.
More than 3,000 experts with the highest credentials in cloud services and cybersecurity serve the Telefónica Group’s 5.5 million B2B customers in 175 countries.
