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Future Tech 2027
10–11 March 2027 · Jaarbeurs UtrechtCall for papersSpeak

Session

Digital Sovereignty on the Azure Cloud

Erwin Staal

Edition
2026
Day
Day 1
Time
09:00 · 50 min
Room
Quest

This talk was given at Future Tech 2026.

For organizations in the EU, moving to the cloud raises important questions about control, data protection, and compliance with European laws like the GDPR. In this session, we’ll explore what digital sovereignty means in the context of Microsoft Azure. We’ll look at how to keep control over your data by classifying it based on sensitivity and securing it with tools like Azure Information Protection and Managed HSM. We’ll also cover how Azure supports compliance through data residency guarantees, policies, confidential compute, and the EU Data Boundary. Finally, we’ll examine Azure Local to check if it can help us in this context? We will learn if all that is enough to ensure that personal data stays within Europe.

Speaker

Erwin Staal

Erwin Staal

Independent Solution Architect, Author of 'Azure Infrastructure as Code

I am a Tech Lead and Azure Solution Architect from the Netherlands, with over a decade of experience spanning startups, enterprise organizations, and international teams. I thrive at the intersection of technology, strategy, and leadership, helping companies deliver software to customers using DevOps practices and Cloud-Native architectures. Being on the line between IT and business is where I feel most at home—creating technical solutions that address real user needs while driving teams toward success. I enjoy coaching and leading teams to embrace new technologies and ways of working, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement. Outside of my work for clients, I have a passion for sharing knowledge. I am a co-author of Azure Infrastructure as Code (https://www.manning.com/books/azure-infrastructure-as-code), occasionally write blogs, and regularly speak at international conferences.

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