Microsoft announces new Windows Azure datacenter in Brazil

In first half of 2014 Microsoft will open its first Windows Azure region in South America. The Brazil South Region  will provide Azure customers based in Brazil reduced latency as well as the option of data not leaving the country. Something quite important seeing the recent spying by the NSA on Brazilian oilcompany Petrobras.

When the region has opened services like Web Servers, Azure Storage , HD Insight and Virtual Machines will be offered. There will not be a paired second Azure datacenter in Brazil initially. So when customers select the Geo-replication option of data, their data will be replicated to the Azure US South Central region datacenter located in  San Antonio, Texas.

The image below provided by Microsoft shows present global presence of Windows Azure.

Until now Windows Azure only has a Content Delivery Network in Brazil used for a cache of media like videos and photos. This CDN is located in São Paulo.

Microsoft is rapidly expanding Windows Azure presence around the globe. In Australia two new datacenters in Sydney and Melbourne are being built. The Sydney datacenter is already running servers but is not yet operational. Also Microsoft is building two datacenters in Japan, one in Tokyo and the other in the Kansai area.

Microsoft Azure is offered in China as well. However the services are not managed and offered by Microsoft itself but by Chinese service provider 21Vianet.

The Microsoft press release on the new Brazil region can be read here.