Microsoft Canadian Azure Data Centres Go Live, South Korea Region Planned

Microsoft cloud customers in Canada can now benefit from Azure and Office 365 services delivered from two new data centres in the country, while the company has also announced it will open a new Azure region in South Korea.

The two Canadian regions, first detailed last June, are located in Toronto and Quebec City and will address data residency considerations for Microsoft customers and partners in the US’s northern neighbour.

Customers have the option of a private connection to the public cloud and will be able to benefit from local Dynamics CRM Online services from the third quarter of 2016.

Microsoft Azure Canada

Canada has strict data sovereignty laws similar to those of Germany that force companies handling sensitive information to store it within the country – ruling out the use of cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft’s main rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed it would be opening a region in Canada sometime this year, located near Montreal.

The news came one day after a TechWeekEurope investigation questioned why Amazon was seemingly ignoring the country, whose population numbers 35 million.

The new Azure region in South Korea will be located near the capital Seoul and brings the total number of Azure regions announced to 32 – 24 of which are live.

“This latest investment is further proof of Microsoft’s commitment to empower customers to embrace a cloud-first world on their terms and is expected to accelerate public and hybrid cloud adoption within Korea,” said Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president of cloud and enterprise at Microsoft.

“Businesses in Korea and throughout Asia Pacific will be able use the massive computing power available locally to fuel growth, spur innovation and accelerate digital transformation.”

Microsoft Azure data centres will go live in the UK later this year, while the company has confirmed to TechWeekEurope that its German facilities will open in June, however Office 365 and Power Bi capabilities will only operate from September.

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