Microsoft reveals plans for new datacentres in Europe and the Middle East, while expanding its cloud offerings

Microsoft has announced the expansion of its cloud services in Europe and the Middle East.

The company plans to deliver its first datacentres in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, while expanding its cloud offering for customers in Germany. In addition, the general availability of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 in France has also been announced.

The expansion of Microsoft’s substantial cloud presence in Europe is in response to growing customer demand. The company’s engagement with financial institutions and regulators in Switzerland, for example, has resulted in a deeper understanding of the local market, ultimately resulting in Microsoft’s intent to be the first global cloud operator to introduce cloud regions in the country – specifically in Geneva and Zurich.

In Germany, Microsoft’s additional investments aim to help empower more organisations and businesses in Germany and across the globe to digitally transform with cloud services. The company will offer Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 from new datacentre locations, in addition to the options currently available in Germany.

This new cloud offering will complement the existing options currently available for customers which include global services delivered from outside of Germany and the Microsoft Cloud Germany, which offers a unique cloud model that is physically and logically separated from Microsoft’s global infrastructure and managed under a data trustee.

The new cloud offering will provide enterprise-grade reliability, performance and business continuity, combined with data residency within Germany and connectivity to Microsoft’s global public cloud network.

“The new cloud services enable customers to digitally transform their businesses empowered by Microsoft’s global network and the latest innovative services while meeting their compliance requirements to store customer data in Germany,” said Sabine Bendiek, Area Vice President, Microsoft Germany.

In France, new datacentres in Paris and Marseille mark Microsoft’s commitment to the region, opening the Microsoft Cloud to thousands of customers, partners and ISVs, with the general availability of both Azure and Office 365 providing empowering opportunities for countless organisations. Dynamics 365 is also set to follow in early 2019.

Examples of companies taking advantage of the power that the cloud offers include Naval Energies, a global player in renewable marine energies, Astrimmo, a leading provider of housing services in France, and Ercom, a French company specializing in cybersecurity. By adopting the Microsoft Cloud, they will reap the benefits of greater scalability, improved agility, and the opportunity to develop new cloud-based solutions while remaining competitive.

“We are convinced that this opening is the beginning of a new adventure – one in which we want as many French organizations and companies as possible to embark on, in order to accelerate the digital transformation of our ecosystem,” states Carlo Purassanta, General Manager, Microsoft France.

“Thanks to the power of the Cloud, disruptive technologies such as artificial Intelligence, mixed reality and, in future, quantum computing, will reveal their full potential and enable us to meet the great societal challenges that we are facing today. The future is open to us. Together, we have to seize the opportunities to build the economy of tomorrow.”

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