Microsoft Cloud will accelerate Asia’s post-pandemic economic growth, creating tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue in the next four years

Microsoft launches virtual datacenter tour to enable everyone to experience the foundation of work, life and play

SINGAPORE – Media
OutReach – 21 April 2021 – As Asia moves out of the pandemic, cloud is not only a critical
foundation for business resilience but will also be a key driver of the region’s
next wave of economic growth. Recent research by IDC, shows that Microsoft’s most recent datacenter expansions in Malaysia, Indonesia,
and Taiwan alone,
in partnership with its ecosystem, are set to generate more than $21 billion in
new revenues and will create 100,000 new jobs in the next four years^[1].
Microsoft is also unveiling an immersive virtual datacenter
tour
to empower every individual to experience the foundation for today’s work,
life, and play – the Microsoft Cloud.

 

Over the past
year, we have seen digital transformation on an unprecedented scale. Entire
industries have been reimagined, people have connected differently to work, live,
learn and be entertained, resulting in real structural change that will outlast
the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Microsoft has accelerated the growth of its
cloud datacenter footprint in Asia, expanding from seven to eleven markets to better
support and co-innovate with customers and partners. As part of this
expansion, the company announced the addition of cloud regions to four new
markets across Asia – Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and New Zealand.  This expansion was combined with additional
cloud infrastructure investments, empowering customers with faster
access to the cloud and allowing for in-country data residency.

 

“There is no doubt that during the past
year we have seen the acceleration of digital transformation efforts across all
industries,” explains Ahmed Mazhari, President, Microsoft Asia. “Asia now
accounts for sixty percent^[2]
of the world’s growth and is leading the global recovery with the
digitalization of business models and economies. Cloud will continue to be a
core foundation empowering the realization of Asia’s ambitions, enabling
co-innovation across industries, government and community, to drive inclusive
societal progress.”

In Malaysia, Celcom, a leading telecommunications
company is embracing Microsoft Cloud in its pursuit towards becoming digital
economy powerhouse in the region. “We highly applaud Microsoft’s plans to
establish its first datacenter region in Malaysia, providing access to a
secure, scalable, highly available, resilient and sustainable cloud services
for the government, and across multiple industry verticals. As the anchor telco
tenant, we look forward to bringing the benefit of this datacenter to our
customers and partners” said Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom.

 

In healthcare, Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice
Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, India’s leading integrated healthcare services provider which is
offering round-the-clock virtual consultations with just 15 minutes notice
commented: “Ultimately, all our transformation efforts center around providing
seamless and secure healthcare experiences for our patients. With a
trusted cloud infrastructure, we can not only improve patient engagements, but
also have access to intelligent health insights for better patient outcomes. We
are excited to see how this will continue to evolve, and how we can
continuously combine our network and capabilities with Microsoft’s
technological expertise as we look toward the future of healthcare.”

 

Building Asia’s cloud foundation for region’s
technology-driven future

According to IDC,
Microsoft, along with its ecosystem of partners and cloud-using customers, are
expected to generate over $21 billion in new revenue and to create more than 110,000
jobs, including nearly 19,900 new skilled IT jobs, in Malaysia, Indonesia and
Taiwan during the next four years^[3].

• Microsoft’s
  first-ever datacenter region in Malaysia, announced on April 19, will help generate
  up to USD $4.6 billion in new revenues for the country’s ecosystem of local
  partners and cloud-consuming customers and will create more than 19,000 new
  jobs^[4].
• Microsoft’s Indonesia datacenter region announced
  in February 2020 is forecast to add USD $6.3 billion to the revenues of local cloud-using
  customers and partners, contributing to the creation of nearly 60,000 jobs^[5].
• Microsoft’s
  Taiwan datacenter region, announced in October 2020, will add more
  than USD $10.4 billion in new revenues and will add approximately 30,720 jobs
  to the Taiwanese economy^[6].
• New Zealand’s datacenter region will be Microsoft’s first in the country, and the first by a major
  cloud provider.
• A new Azure region in China – China North – will effectively double the
  capacity of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud portfolio in the country during the
  coming years.
• With existing and announced datacenter regions in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea,
  Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, Microsoft has also made a
  commitment to expand Azure Availability Zones
  to every country in which we operate a datacenter region by the end of 2021. For
  instance, last year it launched three Availability Zones in Australia.

 

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^[1] IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft,
The Microsoft Cloud Dividend 2020:  IDC
#US46777220 October 2020

^[2]
IMF Regional Economic Outlook: Asia Pacific October 2018

^[3]  IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft,
The Microsoft Cloud Dividend 2020:  IDC
#US46777220 October 2020

^[4]
IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, The Microsoft Cloud Dividend
Snapshot: Malaysia, Doc. #US46918020, October 2020

^[5]
IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, The Microsoft Cloud Dividend
Snapshot: Indonesia, Doc. # US47443521, February 2021

^[6]
IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, “The Microsoft Cloud Dividend
Snapshot: Taiwan,” Doc. #US46913920, October 2020