Help & FAQs about the Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo Add-on

Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo is a new additional SKU that partners or customers can add to their Microsoft 365 subscription as an add-on if they do so as part of Microsoft New Commerce . This add-on allows you to expand your Microsoft 365 presence to multiple different regions or countries within an existing Microsoft 365 tenant, for example, to meet data location requirements.

Microsoft has introduced this additional SKU so that customers can meet data residency requirements. Once configured, the SKU enables a company to transfer a specific user's data to a specific regional data centre (also known as a geographical satellite location). In accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the user's data is then not copied to the tenant's original geographical region, but remains in the selected geographical region. However, this only applies to certain data and is limited to the user's mailbox (Exchange), OneDrive and Teams chat data in Microsoft 365.

Example: A company based in England wants to open an office in Germany within the EU. The Multi-Geo SKU can be purchased for the employees there, allowing a data storage location in an EU data centre to be specified without the need for a new tenant.

The Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo Add-on is only intended for certain data. You can use it to specify the storage location for data from Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams:

Exchange Online: In a multi-geo environment, you can select the storage location of Exchange Online mailbox content (data at rest) on a per-user basis.

OneDrive for Business: Each user's OneDrive, including its contents, can be made available at a desired satellite location. Personal files remain at this geographical location, although they can be shared with users at other geographical locations.

Microsoft Teams: The multi-geo features in Teams enable Teams chat data to be stored at rest in a desired geographical location. Chat data includes chat messages, including private messages, channel messages, and images used in chats.

SharePoint: When a user creates a website associated with a SharePoint group in a multi-geo environment, the geographical location where the website and associated group mailbox are created can be determined.

Users whose data is stored at a satellite location should not notice any difference in their user experience. However, individual administrative options may be restricted when using multi-geo locations.

For example, in OneDrive, some of the administrative options found on the OneDrive tab of an active user within the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre are currently not supported for clients with multiple geographical locations.

Security and compliance features (e.g., auditing and eDiscovery) available in the Exchange Admin Centre (EAC) are not available in multi-geo organisations. Instead, the Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Centre must be used to configure security and compliance features.

These are add-on licences at user level. You need one licence for each user who is to be hosted in a company's Microsoft 365 tenant at its satellite location.

When multi-geo licences are purchased through a CSP partner such as Telekom, the number of licences must be at least 5 per cent of the company's total eligible Microsoft 365 licences.

Example: A company has a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription with 200 seats or licences: The purchase of multi-geo licences must then comprise at least 10 licences (5 per cent of 200).

You can purchase the Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo add-on for the following editions or plans:

• Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 F1
• Microsoft 365 F3
• Office 365 E1
• Office 365 E3
• Office 365 E5
• Office 365 F3
• Exchange Online Plan 1
• Exchange Online Plan 2
• OneDrive for Business Plan 1
• OneDrive for Business Plan 2
• SharePoint Online Plan 1
• SharePoint Online Plan 2

You can use the add-on in a variety of Microsoft regions. European customers, for example, can use it in the following locations:

• Region Geography 1 – EMEA
• Germany
• France
• Great Britain
• Sweden
• Switzerland

Before you can use Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo, you must have your tenant configured for Multi-Geo support. This process is automatic and only occurs once, after you have booked the SKU and the corresponding licences are displayed in your tenant. You will be notified as soon as the configuration for the relevant workloads in your tenant is complete. Once this is done, you can start configuring and using your Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo features.