Outlook apps dump AWS and head for an all-Microsoft infrastructure with new architecture

[Tony Redmond]

Eighteen months after their launch, the Outlook app for iOS and Android is finally getting an all-Microsoft infrastructure to improve its ability to meet customer requirements for data privacy and security. The old Amazon-based cache is being jettisoned for a brand new architecture that is shared by Exchange Online, Exchange on-premises and non-Microsoft email servers like Gmail. It’s a big change and it’s happening now. https://www.petri.com/outlook-ios-android-dumping-aws-q3

[#2]

This is great news, cant come soon enough.

[#3]

Is this migration already done globally? Looking at related Technet article which has been edited five days ago contains  following line:

"We are moving the Outlook service to Office 365, and plan to have that move completed soon."

So it`s still ongoing?

[#4]

I believe the new Outlook.com now uses the Azure service when mobile Outlook clients connect to their mailboxes.

[#5]

The technet article is still not updated. So does this mean that using the Outlook app on iOS/Android is still "routing" all requests through a US hosted AWS instance? I would have expected that this process is completed by now? Any offical updates? Microsoft? We are mostly running EMEA based Office 365 tenants for our customers. And as most of the time having "no" data in the US is still an impotant topic here in europe.

[#6]

A colleague of mine has better eyes and spotted the technet article is related to Exchange Online and the Outlook app on iOS/Android only. In the article MS is referencing the same topic regarding Exchange Online and for this combination (the only we do ;) ) the problem was solved a while ago:

"Outlook for iOS and Android in Exchange Online: Exchange Online Help

Previous versions of Outlook for iOS and Android were based on code that came from Microsoft's acquisition of Acompli. While these earlier versions leveraged cloud components that ran in Amazon Web Services (AWS), that architecture has been replaced. The new architecture supports Exchange Online mailboxes natively, which means there is no mailbox data that is cached outside of Office 365. Data simply stays in its current Exchange Online mailbox, and is protected by TLS-secured connections between Outlook for iOS and Android and the mailbox. The Outlook app is now fully integrated with Microsoft services, providing the security, privacy, and compliance that organizations need."

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/mt728167(v=exchg.150).aspx