Cloud services rising across region, reflecting investment Microsoft says it is boosting European cloud investment to $3bn as it adds a number of initiatives. The include plans to bring Microsoft Cloud to France, and discuss cloud policy. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (below), talking in Dublin, says that Microsoft has more than doubled its cloud capacity in Europe in the past year, noting that the company has invested over $3bn across Europe to date.
"We continue to invest heavily in cloud infrastructure to meet the growing demand from European customers and partners," said Satya Nadella. "Building a global, trusted, intelligent cloud platform is core to our mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. There's never been a better time for organisations across Europe to seize new growth and opportunity with the Microsoft Cloud."
Microsoft intends to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacentres in France, starting in 2017 with Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 from multiple locations in France. Microsoft Cloud services are already avalable from datacentres in the United Kingdom (Microsoft Azure and Office 365) and Germany (Microsoft Azure with Office 365 planned for early 2017), with the latter offering a new model in Europe where access to customer data is controlled by a data trustee, T-Systems International, an independent German company and subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
The collective investments, including hubs in the Netherlands and Ireland, which continue to expand, together with locations in Austria and Finland, aim to enable Microsoft to meet anticipated customer demand in Europe.