Microsoft today announced that it will build a new datacenter region in Southern Finland to deliver its cloud services in a more reliable way. This upcoming datacenter region will feature Azure Availability Zones with unique physical locations, independent power, networking, and cooling for additional tolerance during failures.
The investment is in response to Finland’s growing demand for high performance, sustainable computing, and fast and reliable access to Microsoft services. The new datacenter region announced today will play a pivotal role in accelerating the digital transformation of the government, businesses, customers, and partners across Finland.
Microsoft has 45,000 customers including Nokia, Elisa, Fortum, S-Bank, Tietoevry, HUS, Vero and Valtori in Finland. These customers will be able to take advantage of this upcoming datacenter region.
Microsoft has also partnered with Fortum Corporation to transfer the waste heat produced in the datacenters for district heating. The heat will be used by Finland’s second largest city Espoo and Kauniainen, and the municipality of Kirkkonummi. The heat generated by Microsoft’s datacenters will be transferred to customers through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space and water heating. This will help these cities to reach their CO2 emission reduction targets.
