A technique for addressing geographical location issues in a computing environment includes receiving, at a data processing system, location information indicating a permissible geographical location in which a virtual machine image for a consumer may be deployed. A request for an exception to deploy the virtual machine image outside of the permissible geographical location is issued, from the data processing system. An exception grant or an exception denial is received, at the data processing system, from the consumer in response to the request. The virtual machine image is deployed, using the data processing system, to one or more servers in the computing environment that are outside of the permissible geographical location in response to receipt of the exception grant. The virtual machine image is deployed, using the data processing system, to one or more servers in the computing environment that are within the permissible geographical location in response to receipt of the exception denial.