Microsoft recently announced the opening of its new Brazil data center. The newly launched Sao Paulo data center was established to provide access to the company’s Azure platform in the southern region of the country, in response to rising client demands.
Microsoft utilized a number of vendors to establish its Sao Paulo facility, including server and storage equipment from Dell, NetApp and Hewlett-Packard. The structure also features remotely-accessible power management, cooling system and server infrastructure from APC, Emerson Network Power and Avocent.
This recent South American expansion comes in step with Microsoft’s expanded service footprint in Japan and China. During its preview phase, the company saw strong adoption of Azure services, especially within the financial services, technology and e-commerce sectors. Overall, Microsoft is reportedly investing $1.5 billion to expand its global data center infrastructure, and hopes to provide Azure support across the globe.
The tech giant first announced plans for the Brazil data center launch in December 2013. At the time, Microsoft’s corporate vice president Steven Martin noted that rising client demands in the area required expansion. Furthermore, as users are becoming increasingly concerned about data storage location, having a Sao Paulo data center would help ease the worries of local customers.
Trend toward Brazil data centers
Microsoft isn’t the only organization to grow its data center service footprint in Brazil. The country has become an increasingly popular destination, especially for cloud service providers. Amazon opened its Brazil data center in 2011, alongside new projects from vendors like Equinix and Verizon Terremark.
Digital Ocean CEO Ben Uretsky noted that although the market conditions in Brazil are still challenging for those in the data center industry, the country is still experiencing growth. It seems the considerably high import taxes and unstable infrastructure availability have not hampered data center growth in Brazil.
