Microsoft is launching its first cloud area in Italy, the corporate mentioned on Monday.
The brand new area, which could have three information facilities, can be positioned in Lombardy — an administrative space in Northern Italy whose capital is Milan.
Enterprises will be capable to begin utilizing the brand new area utilizing Microsoft Azure or Microsoft 365 within the coming weeks, the corporate mentioned, including that different companies akin to Dynamics 365 and Energy Platform are anticipated to observe quickly.
The information facilities in Lombardy are a part of Microsoft’s “Ambizione Italia” (Ambition Italy) program launched in 2018. Later in 2020, the corporate mentioned it will make investments $1.5 billion over the subsequent 5 years underneath this system to enhance cloud infrastructure and supply digital abilities coaching.
Microsoft’s ecosystem in Italy and its enterprise clients collectively might add about $135 billion and add 237,000 jobs to the Italian economic system over the subsequent 4 years, in keeping with a joint examine by Microsoft and IDC. Of the $135 billion, the Lombardy area alone is anticipated to contribute over $22.95 billion to the Italian economic system over the subsequent 4 years.
Microsoft mentioned it will present cloud companies to the Italian Public Administration as a part of the Nationwide Strategic Hub by leveraging Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, which was launched in July final 12 months.
The brand new area in Lombardy will add to over 60 cloud areas that Microsoft has globally and is anticipated to be one of many largest information heart areas in Europe. The corporate has a complete of 17 areas within the continent.
Microsoft is the most recent amongst giant public cloud service suppliers so as to add a area in Italy. Amazon Net Providers (AWS), Google Cloud, and Oracle have already got cloud areas in Milan.
Public cloud service suppliers have been quickly increasing their cloud infrastructure globally and are anticipated to do speed up the identical with the proliferation of compute-intensive AI and generative AI based mostly functions together with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Final month, Oracle mentioned it’s opening a new area in Serbia simply after opening a second area in Singapore.
AWS, too, not too long ago launched a area in Malaysia with a $6 billion dedication. Google has additionally introduced its intent to launch new cloud areas within the coming quarters.
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