Microsoft is establishing its first cloud data centre region in Taiwan, with a commitment to invest significantly in local talent provide digital skilling for over 200,000 people in Taiwan by 2024.
At the same time, Microsoft intends to grow its Taiwan Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure engineering group, which will establish Microsoft Taiwan as a hub in Asia for innovation in designing and building advanced cloud software and hardware infrastructure spanning AI, IoT and edge solutions.
The new investment adds to Microsoft’s recent investments in Taiwan, including an IoT Innovation Centre, AI Research and Development Centre, Startup Accelerator and the IoT Centre of Excellence.
An IDC report postulates that over the next four years, Microsoft, its ecosystem and cloud customers together will generate more than $10 billion in new revenue and will add over 30,000 jobs to the Taiwan economy.
IDC predicts that Microsoft’s growing ecosystem will be enabled by the expansion of data centres into new regions around the world that support customers in their digital transformation efforts and bring the benefits of data residency, security, and reduced latency to them.
“Our new investment in Taiwan reflects our faith in its strong heritage of hardware and software integration. With Taiwan’s expertise in hardware manufacturing and the new data centre region, we look forward to greater transformation, advancing what is possible with 5G, AI and IoT capabilities spanning the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge,” said Jean-Phillippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations.
Microsoft will help customers to store data at rest in Taiwan and over 90 compliance certifications to meet a broad range of industry and regulatory entity standards, under Taiwan’s executive branch of government, the Executive Yuan. As part of a global commitment to be carbon negative by 2030, Microsoft will shift to 100% supply of renewable energy for its data centres by 2025.
