Microsoft Adds Azure Cloud Data Centres In India, China

Microsoft on Monday announced plans for a fourth data centre facility in southern India, and opened a new cloud region in China.

Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari said the company was making long-term investments in the country, but declined to confirm reports by local media that the centre would cost $2 billion (£1.5bn).

He told Reuters the data centre represented a “continuous investment”, and noted that the company has doubled the capacity of its existing three data centres over the past two years.

IDC predicts the Indian public cloud services market will reach $10.8bn by 2025.

Southern India location

Microsoft said the data centre would be in Hyderabad, Telangana, but didn’t provide further location, specification details or indicate when it expects the centre to begin operations.

The Economic Times of India reported Microsoft had acquired land in Mekaguda, Shadnagar and Chandenvelly, all neighbouring towns in the south-western outskirts of Hyderabad, which is a major centre of India’s tech industry.

Microsoft already has a large Development Centre in the area.

“The new data center will augment Microsoft’s cloud capabilities and capacity to support those working across the country,” Maheshwari said in a statment.

He added that Microsoft was collaborating with the government of Telangana on the project.

Competition

Microsoft opened three Indian cloud regions in Pune (Central India), Chennai (South India) and Mumbai (West India) in 2015 amidst calls by the government for cloud services companies to host data within the country.

In December of last year the company added three availability zones in the India Central region, the only Azure region with availability zones.

“Today’s commitment to the people and businesses of India will position the country among the world’s digital leaders,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship.

Maheshwari said Azure in India has generated business worth about $10bn over the past five years.

Rival Amazon said in late 2020 it would spend $2.8bn to build its second data centre in India, while competitor Adani Group said last year it would build six data centres around the country.

New Azure China region

Microsoft also recently announced a new Azure region in China, its fifth in the country, launching the “North China” region last week.

Like its other data centres the latest one will be operated by Vnet.

Dr. Hou Yang, Microsoft corporate VP, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft Greater China Region (GCR) said he sees ongoing “strong momentum driving us to keep expanding and upgrading our cloud services” in China.

The company said it plans to launch availability zones within its Chinese regions in 2022, along with Digital Twins, Arc and MySQL services.

It launched its Hong Kong/East Asia region in 2010 and its first mainland China facility in 2014.

Microsoft launched new availability zones in its Hong Kong cloud region in November of last year, after announcing a new Azure region in Hebei in March of 2021.

Bloomberg reported last year Microsoft was planning four new data centres in China in “early 2022”.