Microsoft recently announced another major milestone in its “Reimagine Taiwan” initiative, including plans to establish its first cloud data center region in Taiwan.
The plan also includes significant investment in local talent and development with the goal to provide digital skilling for over 200,000 people in Taiwan by 2024.
“Technology has a critical role to play in supporting economic recovery and opportunity everywhere. Microsoft is committed to fostering local innovation to support digital transformation across the public and private sectors in Taiwan,” said Jean-Phillippe Courtois, the Executive Vice President and President for Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations.
The new investment adds to Microsoft’s more than 30-year history in Taiwan and recent investments, including the IoT Innovation Center, AI Research and Development Center, Startup Accelerator and the IoT Center of Excellence.
“Our new investment in Taiwan reflects our faith in its strong heritage of hardware and software integration. With Taiwan’s expertise in hardware manufacturing and the new datacenter region, we look forward to greater transformation, advancing what is possible with 5G, AI and IoT capabilities spanning the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge,” added Mr. Courtois.
Additionally, Microsoft is growing its Taiwan Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure engineering group, which will establish Microsoft Taiwan as a hub in Asia for innovation in designing and building advanced cloud software and hardware infrastructure spanning AI, IoT and edge solutions.
Commenting on the new data center, Jason Chen, Chairman and CEO of Acer, said: “Acer is excited that Microsoft is establishing a data center region in Taiwan, and we look forward to furthering our partnership to help enterprises on their digital transformation path with cloud and smart technologies, fulfilling our mission of breaking barriers between people and technology.”
This recent announcement is said to represent Microsoft’s commitment to fuel new growth that will accelerate digital transformation of Taiwan’s public and private sectors, helping customers to reimagine their future by providing access to highly secured enterprise-grade cloud services.
Ken Sun, General Manager of Microsoft Taiwan said: “I’m confident that providing access to scalable, low-latency, and secure cloud services will equip Taiwan’s public and private sectors with the latest AI and IoT technologies, while meeting the highest cybersecurity, data residency and compliance standards.
Microsoft’s ambitious new skilling plan aims to help cultivate and groom tech talent, increasing future employability opportunities for the people of Taiwan.
“Building a world-class, enterprise grade cloud marks an important step toward the digitalisation of Taiwan’s key industries. Microsoft is committed to fueling innovation and economic growth in Taiwan as it transforms into the next Asian technology hub,” added Mr. Sun.
Microsoft will deliver highly secure and scalable cloud services that will help customers to reimagine their businesses and innovate with confidence, adding Taiwan to its global-scale cloud, which now totals 66 cloud regions.
Microsoft Azure is an ever-expanding set of cloud services that offers computing, networking, databases, analytics, AI and Internet of Things services. At launch, the new region will deliver Microsoft Azure first with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform services to follow.
Microsoft intends to tailor their services to the needs of customers to store data at rest in Taiwan and over 90 compliance certifications to meet a broad range of industry and regulatory entity standards, under Taiwan’s executive branch of government, the Executive Yuan.
“With the local data center region, we hope to generate greater momentum for Taiwan’s innovation, by creating diverse services suitable for a wide range of industry scenarios, connect Taiwan to the globe, and make it a hub for the world’s innovative applications,” said Dr. Chee Ching, the President of FarEasTone Telecommunications.
As part of Microsoft’s global commitment to be carbon negative by 2030, the company will shift to 100 % supply of renewable energy for its data centers by 2025. Microsoft is also empowering its ecosystem and supply chain to be more sustainable. To support customers’ demands for high-availability and resiliency in their applications, the new region will also include Availability Zones, which are unique physical locations of data centers with independent power, network and cooling for additional tolerance to data center failures.
“Our core strategy of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and world-class telecommunications networks leverages Azure’s cloud platform to create innovative solutions from the intelligent cloud to the intelligent edge,” added Dr. Chee.
Leading local companies in Taiwan across sectors have worked closely with Microsoft to create customised solutions for their customers, including: Acer, ASUS, Chunghwa Telecom, Delta Electronics, FarEasTone Telecommunications, TECO Electric & Machinery Co. Ltd, Trend Micro, Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
“Chunghwa Telecom and Microsoft have closely collaborated in areas including private enterprise networks, edge computing, smart manufacturing and smart energy, and provided vertically integrated solutions and applications. Azure’s advanced cloud services, combined with Chunghwa Telecom’s telecommunications and operations expertise, will undoubtedly accelerate innovation across Taiwan’s industries and ecosystem, bringing Taiwan’s best-in-class solutions to the Asia pacific region and the world,” said Hong-Chan Ma, Senior Executive Vice President of Chunghwa Telecom.
According to a recent IDC study, in the next four years, Microsoft, its ecosystem and cloud customers together will generate more than $10 billion in new revenue and will create over 30,000 jobs, adding to the Taiwan economy.
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