Kirk LaughlinTotal investments in Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Brazil data center will reach US$500mn, the director of technology and innovation for Microsoft’s Chile division, Wilson Pais, told BNamericas.
Construction is well underway, Pais said, but was unable to disclose the center’s exact location. The facility will be up and running next year.
The executive also confirmed Microsoft’s intentions of constructing additional data centers in the region, but said the exact locations are still up in the air.
“There will be more than two in Latin America,” he said. “All the data centers are connected, and they all have Microsoft cloud computing infrastructure. Each data center represents an investment of roughly US$500mn. These are data centers the size of soccer stadiums.”
Pais emphasized that the company will make the final call regarding additional centers once demand reaches a certain level. Factors under analysis also include the quality of local network connectivity and country stability, while politics are being left by the wayside.
“If the consumption in Latin America turns out as we expect it will be, we will obviously need another data center in a short period of time,” he said.
BNamericas previously reported that Brazil and Mexico had garnered the most attention in Microsoft’s datacenter planning. Microsoft will need the centers to support its regional cloud computing offer, which already includes a range of enterprise products, from the recently launched Microsoft online services and Windows Azure to Windows Intune and Microsoft Dynamics CRM online.
Microsoft’s cloud services are now available in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago.
The company has more than 10 data centers worldwide, including three to four facilities in the US, three in Asia and another three to four in Europe, according to Pais.
Globally, Microsoft saw net profits increase 29% to US$18.8bn during FY10, ended June 30, while revenues during the same period were up 7% to US$62.5bn.
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