Microsoft Exchange Online | Releasing Multi-Geo In-Region Routing

Microsoft Exchange Online is introducing Multi-Geo In-Region Routing (IRR) to help organizations meet regional data residency requirements by routing inbound emails to user-specific geo-regions. Public preview starts in August 2025, with general availability in October 2025. IRR is disabled by default and may require policy adjustments for compliance. Introduction We’re introducing Multi-Geo In-Region Routing (IRR) for Exchange Online, a new capability that helps organizations meet regional data residency requirements by allowing inbound email routing to be aligned with user locations. With IRR, admins can configure accepted domains to route messages directly to a designated geo-region, ensuring that email data is processed and stored entirely within the recipient’s region—even if it differs from the tenant’s primary location. This helps organizations meet compliance requirements without compromising email delivery performance. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410245. When this will happen: Public Preview: We will begin rolling out in early August 2025 and expect to complete by end of August 2025. General Availability (Worldwide): We expect to begin rolling out in early October 2025 and expect to complete by late October 2025. How this will affect your organization: In-Region Routing (IRR) is disabled by default. If you do not plan to use this feature, no action is required. If your organization uses Microsoft Purview capabilities such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP), retention policies, or eDiscovery, you may need to review and adjust those policies to ensure they align with the new regional routing behavior. What you need to do to prepare: Compliance considerations: For domains where you choose to enable IRR, the feature allows you to route inbound emails to accepted domains associated with specific geo-regions. When these domains are aligned with users located in the same geo-region, emails are fully processed and stored within the recipient’s region. This ensures that data remains within the user’s Preferred Data Location (PDL), supporting stronger data sovereignty and compliance with regional regulations. Ensure that admins have the necessary permissions to manage accepted domains and access to either Exchange Online PowerShell or to the Microsoft 365 admin center. Review your domain configurations and identify […]

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