Microsoft has announced new partnership deals and investments aimed at connecting its global data centers using subsea fiber optic cables.
Microsoft said it has inked deals with fiber providers Hibernia and Aqua Comms for two cables that will connect North America to the United Kingdom and Ireland via the Atlantic Ocean. The new subsea Express cable will connect several of Microsoft’s data centres to locations in Halifax, Canada, Ballinspittle, Ireland and Brean, UK.
“Over the past 9 months, Microsoft has been significantly investing in subsea and terrestrial dark fiber capacity by engaging in fiber partnerships that span multiple oceans and continents. And today, our connections across the Atlantic and Pacific just got stronger,” Microsoft’s Managing Director of Network Enablement David Crowley noted in an official blog post.
“We announced deals with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, in which Microsoft is investing in a cable with each company to connect Microsoft’s datacenter infrastructure from North America to Ireland and on to the United Kingdom. These cables will help deliver data at higher speeds, with higher capacity and lower latency for our customers across the globe.”
In the Pacific, Microsoft has joined a consortium comprised of China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom KT Corporation and TE SubCom to build a New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network.
The software giant claimed that the New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network will provide faster data connections for customers, and assist Microsoft in competing on cloud costs. Spanning more than 13,000km, the NCP Cable Network will link Hillsboro, Oregon in the US; Chongming, Nanhui and Lingang in China; Busan, South Korea; Toucheng, Taiwan; and Maruyama, Japan. It is expected to launch in late 2017.
“Additionally, we joined a consortium comprised of China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, KT Corporation with TE SubCom as the cable supplier. As part of our participation in the consortium, Microsoft will invest in its first physical landing station in the US connecting North America to Asia,” the blog post read.
“The New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network will provide faster data connections for customers, aid Microsoft in competing on cloud costs, all while creating jobs and spurring local economies. The goal of our expansions and investments in subsea cables is so our customers have the greatest access to scale and highly available data, anywhere.”
Crowley noted that a strong subsea strategy is part of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile first, cloud first vision.
“When we look to the future with these investments, we believe our customers will see that Microsoft is pulling together all the components necessary to make its cloud services the most reliable, accessible and secure,” said Crowley.
