Take Advantage of Multi-Geo Licenses in CSP

If you are a global organization that needs to comply with data residency requirements, you may be interested in the new Multi-Geo add-on licenses available in CSP. These add-on licenses allow you to assign different geographies to your users and data within the same tenant, giving you more flexibility and control over where your data is stored and processed. 

In this blog post, we will revisit our previous blog “Multi-Geo: Microsoft’s New Globally Reaching, Enterprise-Grade Data Location Controls”, discuss how CSP customers can take advantage of these SKUs, which subscriptions are eligible, and available locations.  

What are Multi-Geo licenses? 

Multi-Geo add-on licenses have been available for Enterprise Agreements for a couple of years but were just recently added as a CSP SKU. Multi-Geo is a feature that allows you to create and manage multiple geographies (or geos) within a single tenant. Each geo has its own data residency boundary, meaning that the data of users and groups assigned to that geo will be stored and processed in the corresponding data centers. 

How can Geo licenses benefit your organization? 

Multi-Geo licenses can help you meet your data residency requirements and preferences (e.g., GDPR, Germany's Federal Data Protection Act, the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act), while still enjoying the benefits of a single tenant. Some of the advantages available by using Geo licenses include: 

• Comply with local regulations and customer expectations regarding where your data is stored and processed. 
• Reduce latency and improve performance by storing your data closer to your users. 

• Simplify your IT management by having a single tenant with a single set of policies and settings. 
• Enhance your collaboration and productivity by allowing your users to access the same services and features across different geos. 

For example, if you have users in the US, Canada, and Germany, you can create three geos for each country and assign the users accordingly to meet the data residency requirements in their respective countries. This way, you can ensure that the data of your Canadian and German users will be stored in Canada and Germany, respectively, while still being part of the same tenant and having access to the same services and features. 

How do Multi-Geo licenses work in CSP? 

Customers must purchase Multi-Geo licenses in quantities greater than or equal to 5% of their total eligible Microsoft 365 seats. For example: 

• Customer A has a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription with 200 seats: The Multi-Geo purchase must be at least 10 seats (5 percent of 200).  
• Customer B has a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription with 1,000 seats, but only needs to purchase Multi-Geo for 25 users/seats (rather than 50 seats, which would be 5 percent of 1,000): Customer B can set up a separate tenant for the E3 subscription with <500 seats to meet the 5 percent requirement and purchase Multi-Geo for 25 seats.   

Microsoft 365 subscriptions eligible for Multi-Geo add-on 

• Microsoft 365 F1, F3, E3, or E5 

• Office 365 F3, E1, E3, or E5 
• Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 
• OneDrive for Business Plan 1 or Plan 2 
• SharePoint Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 

Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo is currently offered in these regions: 

If you have employees in remote locations and want to learn more about data residency and how Multi-Geo add-on licenses help with compliance, check out our previous blog and/or contact Interlink.