Layer 1: tenant geo (everyone has this)
Your tenant's default geography (chosen at creation, visible in admin center org profile) anchors at-rest storage for the core workloads. Teams' artifacts inherit their HOST service's residency: chat/channel compliance copies -> Exchange's geo; files/recordings -> SPO-OD's geo; the Teams chat-service data itself in the region per Microsoft's Teams residency commitments for your geo. Data-residency add-on commitments and local-region programmes exist per-market — check the current product terms for YOUR geo when a regulator asks; cite the terms, not blog posts.
Layer 2: per-artifact nuance
Media in transit relays regionally (calls route via nearby relays — transit != residency); telemetry/CQD data has its own handling; the network module's paths are about performance geography, not legal residency. Keep the two vocabularies apart in writing — 'the call went via Amsterdam' is not a residency event.
Layer 3: Multi-Geo (licensed, per-user placement)
Multi-Geo puts USERS' data in satellite geos: preferred data location (PDL) per user moves their mailbox and OneDrive (hence their chat compliance copies and chat-shared files); group/site PDLs place team files. Teams content follows the underlying stores — which is exactly why the messaging module's storage map matters: set a user's PDL and their compliance copies migrate on the mailbox move's schedule, not instantly.
Multi-Geo is residency machinery, not performance machinery — clients still talk to the nearest front doors; the network module owns performance.
What to watch (proofs)
- The baseline answer: admin center organization profile + the data-location page for your tenant — screenshot the workload-geo table; that IS the first-line regulator answer.
- Multi-Geo actuals: per-user PDL vs mailbox/OD actual location reports (EXO/SPO admin surfaces show placed geo) — the delta list is the in-progress-migration truth.
- The artifact map applied: for one regulated user, locate each artifact class (mailbox geo, OD geo, a team file's site geo) — the laminated-table exercise, residency edition; auditors love the worked example.
- Change monitoring: geo-relevant settings and PDLs in your admin audit trail — placement changes are compliance events; alert on them.