Laura Hyde |
Microsoft is to double the capacity of its Microsoft Azure cloud data centres in Germany by early 2024 to meet customer demand. It will achieve this by significantly expanding the country’s largest data centre hub, Germany Westen-Mitte, located in Frankfurt.
“More and more products ‘Made in Germany’ will use cloud and artificial intelligence in the future,” said Marianne Janik, CEO of Microsoft Germany. “Access to high-performance cloud and AI solutions is therefore a basic prerequisite for a high-performance economy. By expanding our Azure capacity in Germany, we are ensuring that we can meet our customers’ demand now and in the future. In doing so, we are providing companies with the infrastructure they need to succeed in the age of AI – with the reliability and security of the Microsoft Cloud.”
According to the Bitkom Cloud Report 2023, over 50 per cent of German companies will invest in cloud solutions in 2023, with the majority of companies wanting to significantly expand their cloud usage over the next five years. In fact, Germany is one of the fastest-growing Azure regions in Europe. Germany-based companies Bayer, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Börse, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz, SAP and Siemens all rely on the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
“Microsoft has been a companion and pioneer of digitalisation in Germany for 40 years [so] by expanding our cloud infrastructure, we are helping to ensure that Germany can successfully master the next stages of digital transformation and that German companies are successful in the AI economy,” said Janik. “In this way, we are also responding to the requirements of customers from highly regulated industries, for whom it is particularly important that their data is stored and processed in Germany.”