Microsoft is expanding its global data center footprint, seeking to get its Azure cloud platform closer to customers around the world — and important issue for speed and, in some cases, regulatory compliance.
The company announced today that it’s bringing new data centers online for its Azure cloud services in Canada and East Asia. New Canadian data center regions in Toronto and Quebec City are generally available starting today, and the company is expanding to South Korea soon.
With today’s announcements, Microsoft Azure will be available in 32 regions, 24 of which are online now. Amazon Web Services has 12 regions globally, but more data centers overall. Microsoft is playing catchup in South Korea, where AWS already has two data centers.
Microsoft isn’t alone in working to add more data centers for international customers. Box teamed up with AWS last month to bring Box Zones online in Europe and Asia, providing local cloud storage for businesses in those regions.
The trend in local cloud storage is heating up just as Safe Harbor laws, which limit the amount of data European companies can store overseas, start to see further scrutiny around the world. Microsoft is currently fighting the U.S. government to keep overseas data out of American law enforcement’s hands, and has even spoken to Congress about the issue.
