Tech Talk: Microsoft unveils fourth data center in India – Gulf Digital News

Tech Talk: Microsoft unveils fourth data center in India – Gulf Digital News

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corp unveiled its fourth data centre in India on Monday, betting on rising digital consumption in one of its fastest-growing markets.

Microsoft India head Anant Maheshwari said the company was making long-term investments in the country, although he declined to confirm reports by local media of a $2 billion price tag for the latest centre.

"A public cloud data centre is not a one time investment, it is a continuous investment that we have," Maheshwari told Reuters. "In the last two years, we doubled the capacity in the existing three data centres."

The overall Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $10.8 billion by 2025, according to research firm IDC.

India's government has been nudging foreign tech companies to store more of their data locally, a move seen as New Delhi's attempt to gain stricter oversight of Big Tech firms.

Maheshwari said Microsoft was continuing to grow its workforce in India from 18,000 currently "both through the pandemic and going forward."

"We already serve more than 340,000 companies in the country," Maheshwari said.

The new data centre is located in India's southern state of Telangana.

The company's business model, which relies on partners building additional services on top of its cloud platform,