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This page defines terms used throughout the Microsoft 365 data residency documentation. When these terms appear in other articles, they're formatted in italics with the first letter of each word capitalized (for example, Local Region Geography).
Table 1.2: Key terms and definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Advanced Data Residency (ADR) | A Microsoft 365 add-on that provides a Durable Commitment on Data Location for a defined set of services within Local Region Geographies. ADR covers Microsoft 365 Core Services and Microsoft 365 Expanded Services. See ADR overview. |
| Committed Geography | The location where Microsoft commits to store in-scope Customer Data at rest for certain Microsoft 365 services. This location is determined by the Durable Commitment on Data Location applicable to the Tenant. See Determining your Committed Geography. |
| Current Geography | The location where Microsoft 365 Core Services and Microsoft 365 Expanded Services data is currently stored. In certain scenarios, Current Geography may differ from Committed Geography, such as during migration, due to ADR license validity, or at the time of service provisioning. See Data Location Card. |
| Customer Data | All data, including text, sound, video, or image files, and software, that is provided to Microsoft by or on behalf of a customer through use of an Online Service. For the complete and authoritative definition, including applicable exclusions, see Customer Data in the Microsoft Product Terms glossary. |
| Data at Rest | Data stored persistently in a specific location, such as a database, file system, or cloud storage. This is distinct from data actively moving across a network or being processed. See Data at rest. |
| Data Location Card | A feature in the Microsoft 365 admin center that displays where your data is stored. Access it by navigating to Admin > Settings > Org settings > Organization profile > Data location. See Data Location Card for details. |
| Data Residency | The geographic location where an organization's data is stored or processed. For Microsoft 365, Data Residency describes where Customer Data is kept within Microsoft's global datacenter infrastructure. See What is Microsoft 365 Data Residency?. |
| Default Geography | The country or region provided during Tenant creation. This determines the default data storage location for all Microsoft 365 services. Once set, the Default Geography can't be changed. See Where will my data be provisioned?. |
| Durable Commitment on Data Location | A binding commitment that ensures Tenant data location for a service doesn't change. Four methods provide durable commitments: European Union Data Boundary (EUDB), Product Terms, Advanced Data Residency (ADR), and Multi-Geo Capabilities. See Durable Commitments on Data Location. |
| Educational (EDU) Tenant | A Tenant with an active Office 365 Education subscription (A SKU). |
| European Free Trade Association (EFTA) | A regional trade organization consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Microsoft 365 has data centers in the countries or regions shown in bold. |
| European Union (EU) | An international organization comprising 27 European member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Microsoft 365 has data centers in the countries or regions shown in bold. |
| European Union Data Boundary (EUDB) | Refer to EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud. |
| European Union/EFTA | Data stored within the European Union and/or the European Free Trade Association region. |
| Future Local Region Geography | A Local Region Geography that has been announced but is not yet available for provisioning. |
| Geography | A general term referring to any Local Region Geography, Future Local Region Geography, or Macro Region Geography. See Microsoft 365 datacenter locations. |
| Legacy Move Program | A historical program (no longer active) that allowed eligible Tenants to migrate existing data at rest into a Local Region Geography. See What happened to the Legacy Move Program?. |
| Local Region Geography | Countries and regions with dedicated Microsoft 365 data centers: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Qatar, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. See Local Region Geographies. |
| Macro Region Geography | A broader geographic region containing multiple data center locations. There are four Macro Region Geographies. See the individual entries below and Macro Region Geographies. |
| Macro Region Geography 1 – Europe | Data centers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. Displayed as "Europe" on the Data Location Card. |
| Macro Region Geography 2 – Asia Pacific | Data centers in Australia, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. |
| Macro Region Geography 3 – Americas | Data centers in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States. Displayed as "Americas" on the Data Location Card. |
| Macro Region Geography 4 – European Union/EFTA | Data centers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Displayed as "European Union/EFTA" on the Data Location Card. |
| Microsoft 365 admin center Data Location | To see the Primary Provisioned Geography for Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams, refer to the Microsoft 365 admin center by navigating to Admin > Settings > Org settings > Organization profile > Data location. See Access the Data Location Card. |
| Microsoft 365 Core Services | Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat. See Services with Durable Commitments on Data Location. |
| Microsoft 365 Expanded Services | Microsoft Defender for Office P1, Exchange Online Protection, Office for the web, Viva Connections, and Microsoft Purview (select services). See the note below for covered Purview services and Services with Durable Commitments on Data Location. |
| Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo Capabilities | An add-on that allows a single Tenant to store Customer Data at rest across multiple Geographies, rather than being limited to the Primary Provisioned Geography. See Multi-Geo overview. |
| Microsoft 365 Service provisioning country/region mapping | Refer to data maps to learn where a given service provisions specified Customer Data, based on the Tenant's Default Geography. |
| Microsoft 365 Service provisioning mapping | All Microsoft 365 services use the Default Geography to determine where a given Tenant's specified data will be provisioned and stored. See Where will my data be provisioned?. |
| Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, formerly known as Azure Active Directory. See Microsoft Entra ID data location. |
| Preferred Data Location (PDL) | A property set by the Global Administrator that specifies where a user's or shared resource's data should be stored at rest. Used with Multi-Geo subscriptions. See Multi-Geo overview. |
| Primary Provisioned Geography | The Geography where a Microsoft 365 service provisions Customer Data, determined by combining the Tenant's Default Geography with service availability. See Where will my data be provisioned?. |
| Product Terms ("Product Terms") | Microsoft licensing terms that include data residency commitments for eligible Tenants. For current language, see the Product Terms. See Product Terms data residency. |
| Satellite Geography | For Tenants with a Multi-Geo subscription, any Geography outside the Primary Provisioned Geography where Customer Data can be stored based on user-level policy. See Multi-Geo architecture. |
| Services | Microsoft 365 services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and others. See Microsoft 365 services data locations. |
| Tenant | An organization's dedicated instance of Microsoft 365, created when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service. Each Tenant is represented by a unique Microsoft Entra ID instance and is distinct from other Tenants. |
Note
The Microsoft Purview services included in Microsoft 365 Expanded Services (as of February 2026) are: Data Loss Prevention, Information Barriers, Information Protection (MIP), Audit (Standard), Audit (Premium), and Data Lifecycle Management (DLM). Other Microsoft Purview services aren't currently supported.