The Microsoft Azure Cloud is huge. Or should I say H-y-uuuuu-ge! It’s the largest cloud provider in the world with 38 Regions currently (30 online) spread across the globe, and Microsoft keeps adding more regions every few months. Microsoft has been betting the future of their Enterprise business on Azure since the initial General Availability in 2010, and they’ve increased their efforts over the last couple of years as the “Cloud Wars” have been speeding up.

Microsoft has been a little vague over the years. They publish how many Azure Regions there are, and what cities they’re located in. I’ve put together a map that plots the city location of each of the Azure Regions to help visualize things on the Region side of the equation. However, they don’t disclose the street addresses of the data centers, and until recently they haven’t exactly stated how many data centers make up the 38 Azure Regions. That is until recently, where Microsoft released a short video showcasing a few details and images of their data centers around the globe.

Here are some facts about Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure that powers Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Xbox Live, and many other services:

• The Microsoft Cloud is made up of more than 100 datacenters worldwide.
• The Microsoft Cloud serves over 140 countries.
• The Microsoft Cloud is comprised of MILLIONS of servers, and growing!
• The Microsoft Cloud is built with the latest hardware innovations to maximize efficiency.
• The Microsoft Cloud is connected by enough fiber to stretch to the Moon and back 3 times!
• Microsoft processes Millions of network requests per second backed by high availability infrastructure.
• Everything is monitored 24x7x365
• The Microsoft global infrastructure is 100% carbon neutral.
• Microsoft has built one of the most connected networks in the world so you don’t have to.
• Microsoft Azure is used by 85% of Fortune 500 companies.

Here’s the video for your viewing pleasure. The birds eye views of the data centers are really interesting to see, along with a few peeks inside some of them.

On the note of being 100% carbon neutral, Microsoft states that about 44 percent of their datacenter energy comes from Wind, Solar, and Hydropower. Microsoft is also aiming to increase that figure to 50 by 2018. If you’re interested in a little more detail on Microsoft power usage, and the deal to power the new Cheyenne, Wyoming datacenter on Wind power, I encourage you to read the “Microsoft Azure: Cloud datacenter goes fully wind powered in landmark energy deal” article over on ZDNet.

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.