Can M365 Multi-geo function meet Europe GDPR and Korean Financial regulation?

Question

Hello,

I'm IT security administrator in Korean Financial company, HQ located in Germany.

Our company recently implemented M365 for all users, and currently working on migration.

As per the Korean local financial regulation, when we use M365(SaaS), the personnel information like PCI must be stored in Korea, not allowed in overseas.

However, for meeting GDPR as well, EU data must be stored in EU.

At this moment, using Multi-Geo function can meet both regulatory?

Koreas data is stored in Korea MS cloud and EU data is stored in EU as well.

We are all the same tenant. and there cannot be created additional tenant for only Korea users.

Answer 1

Through your question, I understand that you want to know whether multi-geo function can meet both GDPR and Korean financial regulation.

In fact, Multi-Geo is targeted to customers who have a need to store data in multiple geographies, so you can use the multi-geo function to store data from Korea in the MS Cloud in Korea, while storing data from EU in the EU.

You can get started with Multi-Geo by following these steps:

1. Ensure that you purchase Multi-Geo for at least 5% of the total number of eligible users in your Microsoft 365 subscription.
2. Before you can start using Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo, Microsoft needs to configure Multi-Geo support for your tenant. This one-time automatic provisioning process is triggered after you order the Multi-Geo feature in Microsoft 365 and the license appears in your tenant.
3. When you're ready to set up Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo, configure Multi-Geo for your tenant. For more details, please check: Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo tenant configuration - Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn

Here are details about Exchange Online that supports multiple geographic locations.

1. You need to fulfill prerequisites, such as a valid location subscription.
2. Assign a Satellite Geography supported by Multi-Geo to a user, then place mailboxes in Satellite Geography locations.
3. After Microsoft completes the prerequisite Multi-Geo configuration steps, Exchange Online will use the PreferredDataLocation attribute in the Microsoft Entra ID for the user object.

For more information about Exchange Online that support Multi-Geo function, see: Data Residency for Exchange Online - Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn

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