World News – US – Microsoft to build first Azure cloud data center in Taiwan

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As trade tensions between China and the United States continue, and with China’s new security law in Hong Kong opening up the possibility of the territory eventually falling behind the Great Firewall, Microsoft Azure is coming turns to Taiwan for a new strategic location in Asia-Pacific

The company on Monday announced plans to build its first Azure cloud data center region in Taiwan and transform it into a « key operational hub in Asia, » Nikkei Asia reported The company said it would work with Taiwan, one of the world’s largest hardware manufacturing hotspots, « to improve the security of the electronic supply chain, » according to the report.

« Taiwan is a reliable partner of Microsoft because it has a complete IT supply chain with ingenious talents, » Ken Sun, general manager of Microsoft Taiwan, said at a press conference in Taipei

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An American diplomat and executives from hardware manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron and Acer also attended the event

Microsoft already has Azure cloud data centers in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea Taiwan – where its rival cloud platform Google has built two data centers and planning for a third – will further expand the ability of the Azure platform to serve the rapidly growing cloud service markets in Asia-Pacific

In July, Microsoft struck a deal with Asian sports media giant ONE Championship, a Singapore-based organizer and broadcaster of mixed martial arts competitions across the continent ONE will work with Azure to use its cloud tools to enhance its streaming experience with things like AI-based recommendations and analysis of fan behavior

Also in July, giant New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra signed a cloud deal with Azure.The company plans to move many of its mission-critical operations from its own data centers to the vendor’s first data center region. cloud in the country Microsoft announced the next region in May, but did not say when it planned to bring it online, explaining that it was subject to the approval of the country’s overseas investment office.

Fonterra to be first major customer in future cloud region, according to Microsoft The deal is part of Fonterra’s digital transformation push, which also includes deals with SAP and HCL

Among other things, Fonterra wants to be able to analyze in real time large amounts of data collected from IoT sensors on farm milk tanks and smart machines in its factories, the companies said. The dairy giant has tested a machine-learning-based approach to detect poorly sealed or defective bags of powdered milk in its factories, for example

In June, Microsoft announced a partnership with NTT Data, a global subsidiary of Japanese giant NTT Corp, which will sell IT services to corporate clients that combine the Azure cloud platform and software services with NTT’s own technology

Besides long-term digital transformation trends in favor of Microsoft’s cloud business, the COVID-19 pandemic has given it a growth boost in Asia-Pacific, as it has done in others regions As businesses and government organizations rely more on remote working, it has seen a sharp increase in the use of its Teams and Office 365 products

Microsoft Corporation, Taiwan, Microsoft Azure, Cloud computing, SAP, BusinessObjects, Data center, Tsai Ing-wen, Earnings