Geoffrey Carlisle
Sophie Wang
UK organizations are increasingly required to design systems that account for data residency requirements, ensuring that operational data remains within national boundaries. Many teams already run their applications on AWS infrastructure in the UK, but telemetry data can still be processed outside the region, creating gaps in visibility. Datadog’s upcoming UK availability zone solves this by keeping telemetry data in the same region as the workloads that generate it.
At Datadog Summit London in March 2026, we shared our plans to expand Datadog’s footprint in the United Kingdom. At AWS Summit London, we’re sharing the next step in that work: Datadog is partnering with AWS to support our upcoming UK availability zone. When available later in 2026, the zone will let organizations keep logs, metrics, traces, and security signals stored within the UK without changing how their teams work or reducing access to the full Datadog platform.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- Why UK data hosting is now a design requirement
- How Datadog’s UK availability zone supports UK data hosting on AWS
- How to host your observability data in the UK without changing workflows
- How the UK availability zone supports regulated and modern workloads
Why UK data hosting is now a design requirement
UK data hosting considerations increasingly influence system architecture from the outset. Rather than being addressed during procurement or compliance reviews, teams now factor data locality into vendor selection, infrastructure design, and deployment strategies.
This shift reflects how modern systems generate large volumes of telemetry data. Even when applications run on AWS infrastructure in the UK, observability data can leave the region if the monitoring platform processes it elsewhere. As a result, teams must consider both where workloads run and where telemetry data is stored and primarily processed. This is particularly relevant in regulated environments like financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, where control over operational data supports visibility, auditability, and governance.
How Datadog’s UK availability zone supports UK data hosting on AWS
Many organizations already use AWS as the foundation for their UK-based infrastructure. The Datadog UK availability zone builds directly on that foundation, enabling teams to extend their observability practices without introducing new tools or workflows.
AWS provides the underlying compute, storage, and networking infrastructure within UK boundaries. Datadog collects and analyzes telemetry across infrastructure, applications, and security layers. With the UK availability zone, telemetry data that is generated by AWS workloads is stored and primarily processed within the same region. This alignment simplifies a common challenge: Teams can keep their core observability data in the UK while maintaining comprehensive visibility into their systems.
How to host your observability data in the UK without changing your workflows
Teams often associate local data hosting with reduced functionality or increased operational overhead. The UK availability zone is designed to preserve the same Datadog experience across regions while keeping core observability data stored locally.
In practice, this enables teams to:
- Reduce latency by analyzing telemetry data closer to workloads
- Monitor infrastructure and applications in real time by using existing workflows
- Investigate issues and security signals by using familiar tools
- Retain logs and user activity in-region to support audit workflows
Datadog has deployed similar regional availability zones in other markets, such as Australia, where the Sydney availability zone on AWS supports local data hosting with the same observability experience. UK organizations running distributed systems or AI workloads can expect the same full platform access as telemetry volume grows, without data leaving the region.
How the UK availability zone supports regulated and modern workloads
Organizations across the UK are balancing two parallel demands: managing data location commitments and operating increasingly complex, distributed systems. The Datadog UK availability zone helps address both by keeping core observability data stored in-region while maintaining platform visibility.
For regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, local data storage helps support broader data management strategies aligned with frameworks like the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), Cyber Essentials+, and guidance from the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
For teams subject to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) oversight, a UK-based hosting option can be one element of a broader operational resilience and infrastructure management approach. Keeping core telemetry stored in the UK simplifies audit workflows and supports controls over operational data.
At the same time, teams are scaling cloud-native architectures and AI-intensive workloads that generate large volumes of telemetry data. These systems require real-time, end-to-end visibility across many services, making data locality a practical priority alongside governance considerations. By keeping telemetry data close to where workloads run, the UK availability zone reduces latency and enables teams to maintain visibility without adding unnecessary data movement.
In the US, federal agencies including the USDA have deployed Datadog on AWS in FedRAMP®-authorized environments to meet strict data security mandates, demonstrating the same principle the UK availability zone brings to British public sector organizations.
Keep your observability data in the UK
When available later in 2026, the UK availability zone will support Datadog’s full set of AI-powered observability and security capabilities. This will enable teams to store and primarily process their observability data within the UK without compromising on visibility, workflows, or feature set.
If you’re attending AWS Summit London, we’d welcome the opportunity to show you how Datadog helps you observe and secure your AWS, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. And for teams already planning ahead, we’re happy to discuss how to map current environments, assess data location strategy, and develop a transition plan, whether through G-Cloud 14 or existing frameworks.
You can request a personalized demo with a Datadog engineer to learn more about how the upcoming UK availability zone can support your environment. If you’re new to Datadog, sign up for a 14-day free trial.
