Cloudy in Canada
Today Microsoft announced two new datacentres in Canada:
“I’m very pleased to share the announcement of a major investment by Microsoft in locally delivered cloud services across two new Azure regions in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec coming in CY16. These facilities are home to the hardware that powers the Microsoft cloud and its capabilities.
Local delivery of cloud services supports our range of offerings including Microsoft Azure, our hyperscale, enterprise-grade, and hybrid public cloud offering; Office 365, which puts Microsoft Office at your fingertips virtually anywhere, across all of your favorite devices; and Microsoft Dynamics, our leading Customer Relationship Management system.”
This announcement is very welcome as many organizations in Canada are a little cautious about using cloud services that do not guarantee data residency. There is a lot of confusion and concern around this issue. Much if the trepidation is probably not warranted but organizations, their auditors and lawyers are being overcautious and watching what happens in the ongoing battle with the DOJ in which Microsoft refuses to provide Office 365 emails from an Irish datacentre.
If Microsoft is eventually compelled to deliver the emails in question, will it matter to Canadian organizations that there are datacenters in Quebec City and Toronto?
Sun Behind the Clouds 