Hyderabad: Microsoft on Monday announced that it would establish its largest data centre in India in Hyderabad with an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years.
The new data centre region, to be spread across three sites in Chandanvelly, Ellikatta and Kottur, will provide advanced data security and cloud solutions that will help enterprises, startups, developers, education, and government institutions, besides supporting local business growth and in creation of jobs.
Union minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the Microsoft unit will provide a long-term competitive advantage to the country’s digital economy.
“With an aim to connect all Indians over the internet, the Centre is rolling out Bharat Net, the world’s largest broadband project connecting rural areas. This, along with the soon to be rolled out 5G services, will make India the world’s largest digitally connected nation in the world,” he said.
State minister for IT, K.T. Rama Rao said the data centre investment is the second largest foreign direct investment in the state. Microsoft and Telangana go a long way back with Hyderabad being home to one of the largest Microsoft offices in the world, he added.
Rao said there was scope for collaboration with Microsoft in the government’s initiative of taking up a state-wide digital health profile project.
Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India, said the company doubled the cloud capacity of its existing data centres in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai in 2020. “Cloud services are poised to play a critical role in reimagining the future of business and governance, and also enabling the overall inclusion in the country,” he said.
