Microsoft Data Centers Blog

Microsoft has delivered online services since 1994 with the launch of MSN. Today, our engineering and operations teams build, manage and secure a$15 billion cloud-scale infrastructure that powers over 200 services for consumers and businesses 24x7x365 via globally distributed data centers, networks, and security mechanisms, software applications and tools. Our cloud supports more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in 76 markets. With an annual investment of $9.5 billion in research and development, we are enabled to continue to accelerate the innovations in our operational processes to maximize reliability, performance, and efficiency as our capacity grows. Read More >>

Many of us spend time reflecting this time of year. At least I do. And while there are certainly times we need to evaluate, learn, and grow from the various challenges we face, at year’s end I like to celebrate the positives and remember all the hard work our extended teams contributed to make them possible. I’d like to share a list of some of the big moments from my perspective – through the lens of the support the Global Foundation Services’ team provided to manage Microsoft’s growing cloud infrastructure. These were big moments in how they influenced our business and the lasting impact they will have on the company. Read More >>

The New York Timeshas launched a series looking at the environmental and economic impacts of cloud computing. These are critical issues to all cloud users and providers, and areas in which Microsoft has dedicated substantial resources, helped create industry metrics for, and publicly shared our best practices on for many years. We may not agree with all of the conclusions that theTimesreaches, but we appreciate their desire to focus attention on these important topics. Read More >>

Data center operators are touting metrics like PUE to demonstrate energy efficiency leadership, but there is more to consider. Data centers exist because they can more efficiently and economically scale to house servers that host online services used by enterprises and consumers. However, we need a more holistic approach to ensure that we are minimizing the energy consumed to run these services. Performance matters, but so does the energy consumed to deliver that performance. During my past 40 years as a computer architect, I have seen processor power grow faster than processor performance. Read More >>

Last week, we announced an addition of 112,000 square feet and 13.2 MW of cloud computing power to our Dublin data center. This facility and one in Amsterdam... Read More >>