Microsoft Ignite 2026 is only a few days away. From November 17 to 20, Ignite takes place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and online. And if you work on digital sovereignty, there is a lot to look forward to this year: sessions on Sovereign Private Cloud, sovereign AI with Foundry Local, Azure Local disconnected operations, and the public cloud side of the sovereignty story.
Earlier this month I shared that I’ll be at the Cloud & AI Expert Meet-up. Since then, I’ve had many questions about which sessions to attend. So, like last year, I put everything in one place: the sessions, where to meet the Azure Local and Sovereign Private Cloud experts, partner activities, and where you can find me during the week.
Sovereign Cloud, Azure Local and Sovereign AI sessions
Here are the sessions I recommend, day by day. Breakouts are usually available in person and online. Theater sessions and lightning talks are in person only.
Tuesday, November 17
| Time (PT) | Session | Speakers | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | KEY01: Microsoft Ignite opening keynote | Satya Nadella, Judson Althoff | Chase Center and online |
| 3:15 – 4:00 PM | BRK439: Sovereign cloud mythbusters: Separating fact from fiction | Rick Claus, Pierre Roman | In person and online, recorded |
| 3:35 – 3:50 PM | LTG1466: Azure Local Disconnected Operations: Tenant onboarding and IDP setup | Pragya Dwivedi | The Hub, Lightning Talk 6 |
| 4:00 – 4:15 PM | LTGSP1614: Your cloud. Your data. Your control. | Max Uritsky, with Intel | In person only |
| 4:10 – 4:55 PM | TT1691: Audit-ready everywhere: Governance for hybrid and edge AI | Azure Arc team | Table talk |
Wednesday, November 18
| Time (PT) | Session | Speakers | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 – 9:30 AM | THR905: Intelligence at the edge | Sean Parham, Isabella Calandriello | The Hub, Theater D |
| 9:00 – 9:45 AM | Panel: AI for Sovereign to Edge: Ecosystem Play | Thomas Maurer and partner panelists, hosted by TCS | TCS Pavilion #759 (in person only) |
| 10:15 – 11:00 AM | BRK421: Operate a global AKS fleet across regions, edge, and sovereign clouds | – | Breakout |
| 11:00 – 11:20 AM | Sovereign Private Cloud with Azure Local and Intel | Thomas Maurer, Dona Mukherjee | Intel booth #5403, in-booth theater (in person only) |
| 2:50 – 3:20 PM | THR1025: Azure Unplugged: Perspectives on sovereign public cloud | Allison Nachtigal, Meena Gowdar, Steve Melan | The Hub, Theater B |
| 3:00 – 3:45 PM | BRK475: Industrial intelligence in action: Physical AI for factories | Mike MacKenzie, Alfonso Rodriguez, with Unilever | Moscone West, Level 2, Room 2009 |
| 4:15 – 5:00 PM | BRK438: Building sovereign private cloud for mission-critical environments | Meena Gowdar, Sydney Bruckmann, Matt Dacquisto (Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District) | Moscone West, Level 3, Room 3002, and online, recorded |
Thursday, November 19
| Time (PT) | Session | Speakers | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 11:30 AM | Cloud & AI Expert Meet-up | Thomas Maurer and other Microsoft experts | The Hub, Level 0, Moscone North/South |
| 9:00 – 9:45 AM | BRK442: Build sovereign AI with Azure Local and Foundry Local | Anders Zwartjes, Kushmeen Kambow | Moscone West, Level 3, Room 3018 |
| 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM | BRK466: Securing edge AI and operational technology (OT) workloads | Deepak Manohar, Dona Mukherjee, with IBM | Moscone West, Level 3, Room 3005 |
| 1:30 – 2:15 PM | BRK413: Govern, secure, and operate anywhere with Azure Arc | Azure Arc team | Breakout |
| 2:45 – 3:30 PM | BRK480: Scaling intelligence cloud to edge with agentic AI factories | Dion Harris (NVIDIA) | In person and online |
| 2:50 – 3:20 PM | THR899: Build intelligent physical systems with Foundry Local and Azure Local | Cosmos Darwin, Teodora Sutilovic | The Hub, Theater D |
More sessions to add to your schedule
- LTGSP1613: Speed, scale, sovereignty: Azure Local and Bridge on Armada – a lightning talk on how Armada runs Azure Local in modular datacenters at the edge and in datacenters for sovereign clouds, with a preview of GPU as a service on Azure Local multi-rack.
- LAB724: Govern your estate with Azure Arc and Azure Resource Manager MCP – a hands-on lab that runs four times: Tuesday 3:45 PM, Wednesday 12:00 PM, Thursday 10:45 AM and Friday 9:00 AM.
- TT1694: Discover everything: Unified hybrid and edge AI asset inventory – table talk on Wednesday, 9:00 – 9:45 AM.
Meet the Azure Local and Sovereign Private Cloud experts in The Hub
The best place to talk with the Azure Local and Sovereign Private Cloud team at Ignite is the Cloud & AI Expert Meet-up in The Hub (Level 0, Moscone North/South). It’s where you can talk directly with Microsoft experts, ask questions and bring your own scenarios.
The Hub is open from Tuesday to Thursday (November 17 – 19). Check the official event guide for the exact opening hours.
Partner booths and sovereign activities
Sovereignty is a team sport, and many partners bring the sovereign story to Ignite as well:
- Intel (booth #5403): Focused demos on powering a secure and sovereign cloud, plus in-booth theater talks from Microsoft and Intel.
- Intel and Microsoft Innovation Lounge (Dimes Gallery, 667 Howard St): The Sovereignty & Confidential Compute Open House runs Tuesday, 3:00 – 5:00 PM, with demos on hardware-based confidential computing across private and public cloud and the 15-minute lightning talk “Your cloud. Your data. Your control.” There is also a happy hour on Monday, November 16, 4:00 – 6:00 PM.
- NVIDIA (booth #5644): 30 in-person theater sessions from Tuesday to Thursday. Don’t miss BRK480 on Thursday for the cloud-to-edge view, including Azure Local.
- HPE (booth #5879): Explore HPE solutions for Azure Local, including sovereign and disconnected scenarios.
- TCS (Pavilion #759): One of the pavilion’s experience areas is dedicated to trusted AI and sovereign cloud.
Where to find me
I’m part of the Cloud & AI Expert Meet-up team at Ignite:
- Where: The Hub, Level 0, Moscone North/South
- When: Thursday, November 19, 8:00 – 11:30 AM PT
Next to that, I’ll join a few partner theater sessions and panel discussions during the week. Follow me on LinkedIn for updates.
Stop by if you want to talk about Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, Azure Local and Sovereign Private Cloud, running AI in sovereign and disconnected environments, or business continuity and compliance. If that time doesn’t work for you, reach out on LinkedIn or X and we’ll find another slot during the week.
Can’t make it to San Francisco?
No problem. The keynotes and many sessions are free to watch with the Ignite digital pass. Most breakouts are recorded and available on demand shortly after the session. Theater sessions and lightning talks are in person only, so I’ll share my highlights in a recap after Ignite.
Learn more
- Register for Microsoft Ignite 2026
- Advancing digital sovereignty with greater control and choice
- Sovereign Private Cloud: Bringing more choice and control to AI and cloud infrastructure
- Advancing sovereign AI with Foundry Local and Azure Local
- GitHub Enterprise Local: Bringing modern development to environments you control
- Sovereign Control Panel overview on Microsoft Learn
- Sovereignty implementation guidance on Microsoft Learn
- Join Intel and Microsoft at Ignite 2026
- Join NVIDIA and Microsoft at Ignite 2026
- Azure Arc at Microsoft Ignite 2026: Sessions, hands-on labs, and ways to connect
- My earlier post: Join me at Microsoft Ignite 2026: Sovereign Cloud and AI
I’m looking forward to a great week in San Francisco. See you at Ignite! 👋
Session times as of November 14, 2026. Check the session catalog for the latest schedule. Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments!
