Global IT company, Microsoft has invested in undersea cables to connect its global datacentres, the company’s Managing Director, Network Enablement, David Crowley has revealed as the company seeks to ensure it provides the necessary infrastructure to support its cloud services, including Azure
Crowley wrote in a company blog that “Over the past 9 months, Microsoft has been significantly investing in subsea and terrestrial dark fiber capacity by engaging in fiber partnerships that span multiple oceans and continents. And today, our connections across the Atlantic and Pacific just got stronger.
We announced deals with and Aqua Comms, in which Microsoft is investing in a cable with each company to connect Microsoft’s datacentre infrastructure from North America to Ireland and on to the United Kingdom. These cables will help deliver data at higher speeds, with higher capacity and lower latency for our customers across the globe”.
The blog goes onto reveal that “Additionally, we joined a consortium comprised of China Mobile, , Chunghwa Telecom, KT Corporation with TE SubCom as the cable supplier. As part of our participation in the consortium, Microsoft will invest in its first physical landing station in the US connecting North America to Asia. 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”.
“Satya has discussed his vision of Microsoft being a mobile-first, cloud-first company. During Microsoft’s latest earnings we shared that the Commercial Cloud division, which includes Azure, Office 365 and other services, grew 106 percent, and as we expand our cloud services and global infrastructure, we need a strong subsea strategy to ensure our customers experience high availability access to their data”.
Crowley also states “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.
Competition in the cloud and infrastructure space continues to heat up. But it’s not a battle that will be won on just cloud or infrastructure alone, but instead on holistic innovation and providing value to customers from the “sea to the sky”.
