Eyeing Government Contracts, Microsoft Is Planning To Open 3 Hyper Scale Data Centers In India; Pune May Be A Possible Location
Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik has shared that by the end of 2015, Microsoft will open their three hyper scale data centers in India. Although not yet confirmed, but speculations are rife that these three locations would be Pune, Mumbai and Chennai.
Microsoft will invest $22.7million in creating state of the art, advanced cloud based data centers.
Bhaskar said, “If the government has to address 1.2 billion citizens then it needs hyper-scale data centres at an affordable cost, with technology and flexibility.”
Is Microsoft Eyeing Major Government Contracts?
Earlier this year, we had reported that Maharashtra Govt. will store all citizens’ record on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform. But considering the risk involved in storing sensitive data on a server which is located out of India, there are much security concern raised over this development.
It seems that Microsoft is now considering lapping up other such large scale Govt. contracts as well, and the best way to answer security concerns is by having a local data center. Once this comes up, then Microsoft would be the leader in this segment, as no other MNC have announced their plans to open data centers in India.
As of now, Microsoft’s Cloud business in India is growing at a breakneck speed of 105% year on year, and establishing a full fledged cloud based data center will push their growth story even further.
This is clear from Bhaskar’s statement as he said, “In a sense, we will be the market maker and get the Indian clients to move more to the cloud at a faster pace”
Earning Customer’s Trust
As per reports, Microsoft has already started private preview of their data center services, as they have rolled out their cloud based data center services to 100 customers from various verticals such as manufacturing, banking, finance and start-ups.
As per Bhaskar, these customers will receive this service for three months, after which they will formally launch the services nation-wide.
High level talks are already on with senior Government officials for contracting major projects concerning cloud storage and data mining. Domestic data center is certainly the best way to earn trust of both the customers and Government.
Locations
As per an earlier report by Indian Express, it was shared that Pune, Mumbai and Chennai are the locations where these three hyper scale data centers would be located.
In March this year, during Azure Developer’s Conference in Pune, Microsoft had rolled out an Cloud Accelerator program , wherein Bhaskar had shared the opening of their new data center in Pune. Though exact investment details and size of the facility was not discussed, Bhaskar said that the Pune data center would be as big as a ‘rugby field’. Typically, a standard rugby field in USA is 1 hectare or 2.47 acre.
