We Power the Microsoft Cloud

Microsoft's Chicago Data Center:

Winner of the Green Enterprise IT Award from Uptime in 2010

At 700,000+ square feet, it's one of the largest private clouds in the world. Modular computing units feature standard shipping containers, housing up to 2500 servers each, making it highly scalable and sustainable.

• Online July 2009
• PUE 1.15 - 1.22 at peak usage
• Waterside Economization
• Standard colocation rooms too

Securing the Microsoft Cloud

Microsoft has been delivering trustworthy cloud services since 1994. The Microsoft Cloud spans more than 20 million businesses and a billion customers in over 70 countries. Our data centers utilize a comprehensive compliance framework with certifications that include:

• ISO/IEC 27001:2005
• SOC (SSAE 16/ISAE 3402)
• FISMA
• HIPAA/HITECH
• Multiple State, Federal, & International Privacy Laws
• PCI Data Security Standard 

Dublin, Ireland Data Center

Sustainable Winner

At 303,000 square feet, our first mega data center outside the U.S. is expanding with a new 112,000 square foot modular addition.  Both utilize airside economizers for cooling efficiency and recycle over 99% of all wastes.

• Online July 2009
• PUE 1.25 at peak usage

Industry Awards Include:

• Best European Enterprise Data Center Facility
• Data Center Leaders Award for Innovation
• EU Commission's Code of Conduct for Data Centre's Sustainability Best Practice

Geo-Distributed Operations

24x7x365 support is managed through Microsoft's Operations Centers, a geographically-distributed Tier 1 services program with locations placed regionally where our cloud services have a presence.

Local support engineers are empowered to rapidly resolve service incidents, while broader IT teams address logical and physical systemic issues, and innovate to improve overall service levels. An example of the workloads they manage daily include:

• 1 trillion+ rows of data written
• 1,400+ users of our applications 

Quincy, Washington Modular Data Center

At 93,023 square feet, this technologically advanced modular facility significantly reduces water, power and energy use, as well as the carbon footprint of traditional data centers in the industry by over 50%. Construction continues today to expand computing capacity to support growing demand for cloud services.

• Online January 2011
• PUE 1.2 to 1.5 at peak usage
• Hydro-powered
• Airside Economization
• Recycled metal, packaging, etc.
• ITPACs contain 400+ servers

Boydton, Virginia Modular Data Center

At 316,300 square feet and growing, this state-of-the-art modular facility is flexible enough to quickly meet customer demand for our cloud services. The design significantly reduces the water, power, and carbon wastes typically associated with traditional builds today.    

• Online February 2012
• PUE 1.13 to 1.2 at peak usage
• Adiabatic cooling
• 1% water usage of traditional builds
• Pre-manufactured metal building
• ITPACs, PODs, and Colocations
• Recycled packaging, wastes, etc.