Hyderabad: Microsoft has launched its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad. With this, the number of the company’s cloud regions in India has reached four. The company is expanding its infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI).
Hyderabad has joined Microsoft’s existing cloud regions in Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai. Microsoft stated that the new region features a robust three-zone architecture and is designed to support advanced cloud and AI workloads, as well as additional services as they become available.
The expansion is part of Microsoft’s $20.5 billion investment in India, covering cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and operations. The company said the new region will help organisations move AI applications from experimentation to production while supporting local infrastructure, security, compliance and data-residency requirements.
Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia, stated that India’s growing digital economy is driving a massive demand for computing infrastructure. He noted that India’s current data center capacity is approximately 2 GW and is expected to rise to 12–14 GW by 2035; investments exceeding $100 billion have already been committed to this sector.
Chandok also noted that India generates approximately 20 percent of the world’s total data, whereas its share of global data-center capacity stands at only around 3 percent. This highlights an infrastructure gap that needs to be addressed alongside the growing adoption of AI.
(DD News)
