BENGALURU: Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella told Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their meeting in Silicon Valley that the company would soon announce data centres in India that would focus on offering cloud services. The company is planning three data centres in the country; two in the west and one in the south, Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman of Microsoft India, told TOI in an exclusive interaction. “India is one of the first countries outside the US where we have made such big investments in data centres. It will be one of the largest footprints in terms of data centre capacity in India. It will have the highest levels of security & privacy. In terms of scale, scope & capability, we are going to change the way computing will happen here." Pramanik also informed that 125 companies have already signed up for trials on these data centres since July when Microsoft opened up the centres for private previews. The public launch is expected over the next few days.

These elements of cloud also make it very attractive for small enterprises. For banks & government, data centres in India are essential because of regulations that prohibit the movement of certain data beyond the geographic boundaries of the country.

For Microsoft, the move is particularly significant. Along with the existing business model of selling proprietary software, it will also get to play in the hardware & services segments. "We can now address more than 80% of the US$ 52 billion Indian IT industry (hardware, software & services). With only software, we were playing in a US$ 4 billion market (Microsoft has a 30% share of that)," Pramanik said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Microsoft-set-to-launch-three-data-centres-in-India/articleshow/49149191.cms