Microsoft bringing new data centre online in China

The move means that Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity in China, the world’s fastest-growing public cloud market, has been boosted 12-fold since 2014.(File pic shows people walking past a Microsoft office in New York.)

BEIJING: Microsoft Corp is bringing a new data centre region online in China, which highlighted the US tech heavyweight’s long-term commitment to the market and its dedication to helping both multinationals come to China and Chinese companies go global, according to a senior executive.

A data centre region is a physical location where companies cluster data centres.

The move means that Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity in China, the world’s fastest-growing public cloud market, has been boosted 12-fold since 2014.

Joe Bao, president of Microsoft China, told China Daily that the new data centre, located in north China, is the biggest Microsoft has in the China market, which will help the company better ride the next wave of the nation’s digital development.

Currently, about 40% of Microsoft’s China cloud computing business comes from helping multinationals set up such operations in the nation, 40% from helping Chinese companies go global and about 20% from delivering specific industry expertise within China, Bao said.

He said Microsoft has hundreds of thousands of developers, partners and customers on its cloud in the China market, and its local cloud business has been outpacing the average industry performance and its internal targets.

“We are seeing on average over 50% year-on-year growth in areas like helping multinationals land in China,” Bao added.

Amid the accelerated digital transformation in the world’s second largest economy, Microsoft is prioritising local solutions for automotive, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and low-carbon development, the senior executive said.

The company, for instance, is bringing the cloud service Azure Digital Twins to China in hopes of offering local customers the ability to create digital twins of physical objects in the cloud to boost efficiency.

Data from market research company Canalys showed that Microsoft accounted for a 22% market share of global cloud infrastructure services spending in the fourth quarter of 2021. — China Daily/ANN