Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India, said it will be an “ongoing investment process that will increase” without disclosing particular investment levels.
Microsoft Corp. announced on Monday that it will build its largest data centre region in India in Hyderabad, Telangana. By 2025, the first phase should be operational.
After its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, Hyderabad is Microsoft’s greatest investment in the country, with the highest number of workers. Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India, said it will be a “ongoing investment process that will increase” without disclosing particular investment levels.
This strategic investment is “aligned with Microsoft’s mission to help clients prosper in a cloud and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital economy, and will become part of the world’s biggest cloud infrastructure,” according to the company.
The news comes as client demand for cloud-as-a-platform for digital transformation in India grows. Microsoft data centre regions in India generated $9.5 billion in revenue between 2016 and 2020, according to IDC. In addition to the GDP boost, the IDC analysis estimates that 1.5 million new employment opportunities were created in the economy, including 169,000 new skilled IT jobs.
The Hyderabad data centre area will join the current network of three Indian data centre regions, which include Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai. For enterprises, startups, developers, education, and government institutions, it will offer the entire Microsoft portfolio, including cloud, data solutions, AI, productivity tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) with advanced data security.
Microsoft launched Azure Availability Zones in its Central India data centre region in December last year to provide customers with additional resilience options for their cloud applications. Azure Availability Zones are physically and conceptually distinct data centres with their own power, network, and cooling systems.
Jio, Inmobi, Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Apollo Hospitals, Mahindra, Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Piramal, State Bank of India, Flipkart, Pidilite, and Amity are among Microsoft’s clients in India.
Microsoft has said that by 2025, it intends to have a renewable energy source equal to the amount of power utilised by its data centres. The new data centre area will be designed and operated sustainably, allowing Microsoft to provide dependable and highly available cloud services at scale, according to the business.
