14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has officially launched its Windows Azure cloud services in Japan, the company revealed today, so Redmond is also trying to benefit from the impressive growth posted by this particular country in the last couple of years.
“Less than a year ago, we announced Windows Azure services for Japan to support the growing demand for Microsoft’s cloud services. I am pleased to share that Windows Azure in Japan East (Saitama Prefecture) and Japan West (Osaka Prefecture), will be generally available later Tuesday,” Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president, Cloud and Enterprise marketing, Microsoft, said in an announcement today.
According to a research conducted by analyst firm IDC, the Japanese cloud market is expected to reach $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) in 2014, so Redmond is clearly attempting to benefit from the growth by making Azure available for a wide audience.
Microsoft has also revealed some statistics to confirm that Windows Azure services are growing in Japan, so the new investment pretty much makes sense, especially because investments in the last 15 months brought a storage usage increase of no less than 10 times.
“With demand for Windows Azure increasing so significantly, we’re doubling capacity every six to nine months. Furthermore, in Japan alone, storage usage for Windows Azure has grown 10x in the last 15 months. As we continue at this growth rate, we will work with our customers and partners to ensure that we provide the value and support needed,” Numoto pointed out.
Microsoft says that these new regions that are now supported by Windows Azure are expected to benefit from enhanced data recovery solutions, mostly thanks to the company’s continued investments in this field.
Until now, Microsoft invested a total of $15 billion (€10.9 billion) in cloud infrastructure, which means that more than 200 cloud services are now being offered to 1 billion customers in a total of 90 markets across the world, according to Redmond’s very own statistics.
“These new regions will help fulfill the current and future needs of our cloud customers with secure and highly available services that help them grow their business. In addition, they provide local customers the ability to achieve data residency and realize data recovery scenarios, as data will be replicated between the two regions,” Microsoft explained.
Of course, Microsoft is expected to bring Windows Azure in even more countries across the globe, so expect the company to release similar announcements in the coming future too.