Microsoft Invests In Cables Connecting Irish And US Data Centres

Microsoft has closed deals which will see the firm lay down two new massive undersea cables connecting its data centres in North America and Ireland.

David Crowley, who works in the networking department at Microsoft, said in a blog post: “Over the past 9 months, Microsoft has been significantly investing in subsea and terrestrial dark fibre capacity by engaging in fibre partnerships that span multiple oceans and continents. And today, our connections across the Atlantic and Pacific just got stronger.”

Higher capacity and lower latency

The firm announced deals with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, with Microsoft investing in a cable with each company. Microsoft said that these new cables will offer higher speeds, higher capacity, and lower latency.

Microsoft also said that it had joined a group, which members include China Mobile and China Telecom, that aims to invest in the first physical cable landing station in the US connecting North America to Asia.

Crowley said: “The New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network will provide faster data connections for customers, aid Microsoft in competing on cloud costs, all while creating jobs and spurring local economies. The goal of our expansions and investments in subsea cables is so our customers have the greatest access to scale and highly available data, anywhere.”

Crowley noted that a strong subsea strategy is part of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile first, cloud first vision. The last time Microsoft reported its financial results, the firm said its public cloud division had grew 106 percent as it expands to a global infrastructure.

“When we look to the future with these investments, we believe our customers will see that Microsoft is pulling together all the components necessary to make its cloud services the most reliable, accessible and secure,” said Crowley.

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