Utimaco Enhances Data Sovereignty for Microsoft Azure users with Enterprise Key Manager as a Service

With EKMaaS, public sector, governments, and enterprises gain full control of their encryption keys ensuring compliance and safeguarding data sovereignty.

Aachen, Germany - 8 October, 2025 – Utimaco, a leading global provider of IT security solutions, today highlighted the accelerated adoption of its Enterprise Key Manager as a Service (EKMaaS), a service designed for Microsoft's Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) functionality that provides a robust and scalable solution for governments, public sector organizations, and enterprises to securely manage their cloud environments.

This offering addresses the growing need for organizations to maintain control and more direct ownership over their cryptographic keys. By using the Microsoft BYOK feature, customers can generate, manage, and use their own encryption keys within Microsoft's cloud services. This ensures regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and achieves a higher level of data security. The solution provides a single, centralized platform for key management and audit logs, helping customers comply with various industry regulations. 

EKMaaS positions Utimaco as a key provider in the fast-growing market of managing encrypted keys for cloud and hybrid environments. Built on Utimaco’s leading products, the u.trust General Purpose Hardware Security Module (HSM) and the virtual version of Enterprise Secure Key Manager (ESKM), the new service ensures that customers' master keys are protected in a physical HSM. This approach prevents vendor lock-in and separates data from encryption controls, giving customers the peace of mind that they can revoke keys at any time to make data unreadable.

The ESKMaaS is part of Utimaco’s broader Trust as a Service (TaaS) portfolio, a platform providing access to Utimaco’s cloud-based solutions offering flexible deployment, easy scalability, and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). 

“The partnership between Microsoft and Utimaco brings certified HSM technology and sovereign key management to the Azure cloud. Together, the companies address regulatory requirements of the BSI and offer customers from the public sector and industry a secure basis for their cloud strategy. In addition to the use of hardware security module (HSMS) at the customer, Utimaco also offers key management as a service which is integrated into the Azure marketplace,“ said Thomas Treml, Cloud CTO, Quantum Ambassador at Microsoft Germany.

“Through its EKMaaS offering, Utimaco is able to provide users with a scalable, secure solution for protecting their cloud environments and enabling bring your own key (BYOK) environment. By partnering with Microsoft, we empower organizations to maintain full control of their cryptographic keys while benefiting from the agility and efficiency of the cloud. This service reflects our commitment to delivering trusted cybersecurity solutions that meet the highest standards of data sovereignty and compliance,” said Håcan Tiwemark, COO at Utimaco.

Microsoft and Utimaco have an ongoing partnership focused on data sovereignty and key management for Microsoft's cloud platforms, including Azure Key Vault and Microsoft Purview Information Protection, allowing customers to transition their cryptographic workloads to the cloud. As a further component of the Microsoft Sovereign Cloud Initiative, Utimaco has been one of Microsoft's key partners since June 2025 for the provision of External Key Management (EKM) solutions to ensure a high level of data sovereignty, security, and compliance for highly regulated customers.