Host Microsoft Defender data locally in India

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Defender for Identity now support local data residency in India.

This announcement demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with the highest level of security and compliance by offering services that are aligned to local data sovereignty requirements. Customers can now confidently onboard to Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Identity in India, knowing that this Defender data will remain at rest within the Indian boundary. This will help customers meet their regulatory obligations and maintain more control over their data. For more details on the Defender data storage and privacy policies, refer to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint data storage and privacy and Microsoft Defender for Identity data security and privacy.

In addition to India, Defender data residency capabilities are available in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland. (See our recent announcement for local data hosting in Switzerland.)

Note: Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Identity may potentially use other Microsoft services (i.e. Microsoft Intune for security settings management). Each Microsoft service is governed by its own data storage and privacy policies and may have varying regional availability. For more information, refer to our Online Product Terms.

New Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Identity Customers

All new Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Identity deployments are automatically created in the Azure region closest to your Entra ID location. Because of this, new customers in the region do not need to adjust any settings to take advantage of this new GoLocal geo. See Set up Microsoft Defender for Endpoint deployment and Microsoft Defender for Identity frequently asked questions for more information.

Customers with Existing deployments for Defender for Endpoint and/or Defender for Identity

Existing customers can check their deployment geo within the portal by going to Settings -> Microsoft Defender XDR-> Account; and see where the service is storing your data at rest. For example, in the image below, the service location for the Defender XDR tenant is India.

Image 1: Defender XDR Geolocation information

If you would like to update your service location, please reach out to Customer Service and Support for a tenant reset. Support can be accessed by clicking on the “?” icon in the top right corner of the portal when signed in as an Admin (see image below). If you are a Microsoft Unified support customer, please reach out to your Customer Success Account Manager for assistance with the migration process.