Microsoft invests in cables to cope with increasing cloud capacity

Microsoft's focus on the cloud means that the company and its users are more data-hungry than ever before. To help cope with a seemingly insatiable appetite for bandwidth, the company is investing in undersea cables to improve connectivity and bandwidth across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

With an increased push towards services like Azure and OneDrive, Microsoft's infrastructure needed to grow. The company has spent the last nine months forming fiber partnerships to improve intercontinental data connectivity and now new cable deals see North American datacenters connecting Ireland and the UK at greater speeds.

By teaming up with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, Microsoft is able to provide not only faster connectivity, but also greater bandwidth to its customers. The new undersea cabling also promises lower latency for customers, helping to further boost performance.

Writing on the Azure blog, David Crowley Managing Director, Network Enablement said:

Satya has discussed his vision of Microsoft being a mobile-first, cloud-first company. During Microsoft’s latest earnings we shared that the Commercial Cloud division, which includes Azure, Office 365 and other services, grew 106 percent, and as we expand our cloud services and global infrastructure, we need a strong subsea strategy to ensure our customers experience high availability access to their data.

Microsoft has also joined a consortium of Chinese companies with a view to creating new connections between North America and Asia. Known as the New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network, Microsoft says that it will help to reduce the cost of cloud services as well as improving the economy and jobs markets in the regions.

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