To choose the right region based on Azure Arc Region availability is your first step in the journey into hybrid cloud with Azure Arc promises unparalleled flexibility, extending Azure’s management capabilities to your on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments. But as with any cloud deployment, a critical decision looms large: which Azure region should you choose for your Azure Arc resources? This isn’t merely a technicality; it’s a strategic choice impacting latency, data residency, and crucially, the very features available to your hybrid infrastructure.

Let’s dive into the considerations and expert recommendations to ensure your Azure Arc deployment is optimally positioned for success.

Why Region Selection Matters for Azure Arc

When connecting your diverse infrastructure to Azure via Azure Arc, the chosen Azure region serves as the control plane for your hybrid resources. The physical location of this region influences several key aspects:

Latency

:For optimal performance and responsiveness of management operations, the Azure region should generally be geographically closest to your on-premises or other cloud environments. This minimizes network latency between your Arc-enabled resources and the Azure control plane. If you want to check your latency, start with this blog article and learn how to use https://www.azurespeed.com.

Data Residency

Azure Arc stores instance metadata about your connected machines in the region where the Arc resource is configured. If your organization has strict data residency requirements, selecting a region within the required geographical boundaries is paramount to ensure compliance. If this is important for you, please check this document to learn about Data Residency per region from Microsoft, that is shared in this article.

Also pay attention to the recently announced Microsoft Sovereign Cloud. Read the announcement here.

I want to highlight, that if Data Residency is a requirement for you, be very careful when choosing private or public previews. Take your time and read the details of the announcement and documentation. You will most likely learn, that for Private and Public Preview the region is East US 2 or at least the EU boundary is not “active”. For more details on public and private preview, please check here.

Service Availability – Azure Arc Region Availability

Not all Azure services are available in every region, and this extends to the rich ecosystem of Azure Arc features and extensions. Since Azure Arc Region Availability varies, choosing a region with comprehensive service availability ensures you can leverage the full spectrum of Azure management, governance, and security capabilities across your hybrid estate.

This wasn’t easily available in the past for a lot of Azure services, but this has changed and you can get a full overview, when you go to this Microsoft website: Product Availability by Region

Regional Outage Preparedness

For enhanced resilience, especially if you operate across multiple physical locations, it’s a best practice to connect machines in different locations to distinct Azure regions. This strategy helps mitigate the impact of a regional Azure outage on your overall hybrid management.

From my experience this availability option will most likely be overwritten in priority by Latency and Data Residency or the “keep it simple approach”, when looking into Azure Arc Region Availability.

Recommendation

If you are located in Europe, than your obvious choice is the Azure Region West Europe as this is the default region based on most recommendations. It has the highest amount of services being available and the highest availability, but it very often comes with limited resource availability and latency challenges.

When you check the Product Availability by Region you will notice that Germany lacks important functionality at the end of June 2025 i.e. Azure Arc enabled System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Azure Arc SQL, Azure Arc enabled VMware vSphere but you can consider the Azure Region Sweden Central a strong option.

If sustainability matters for your organization the Azure Sweden Central datacenter has some unique sustainability advantages. It backup power generators use 50% raw materials and reduce the carbon footprint and it is cooled by outside air. Read a great blog article sharing some details about this new datacenter here.

I learned about the Sweden Central Strong Alternative in the Azure Arc Show #24 from Alexander Ortha and Manfred Helber. If you are interested in Azure Arc I do recommend adding Alexander’s Youtube channel to your subscriptions.

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References – Azure Arc Region Availability

How Microsoft is Transforming Europe’s Digital Future | Satya Nadella on Sovereign Cloud

Azure Arc: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-arc

Azure Arc-enabled servers Overview – Learn Microsoft: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/servers/overview

Choosing the right Azure Arc service for machines – Learn Microsoft: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/choose-service

Manfred Helber’s Azure Arc Show #25: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=385aQoRGaJc

Alexander Ortha’s Azure Arc Show #24: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqGMVlDdW8