Microsoft increases its presence in the UK by doubling the size of its local Azure regions

2 min. read

Published on April 10, 2019

published on April 10, 2019

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Microsoft has announced that it has expanded its UK Azure regions by as much as double their original size thanks to the addition of Availability Zones within the South region. This adds up to a whopping fifteen times the computing power since they were first made available back in 2016.

According to the company’s blog post, the zones will give businesses increased protection, as businesses leasing at least two zones within the same region (either West or South) are guaranteed to have access to at least one 99.99% in case of a failure of another area. As Microsoft UK’s chief executive, Cindy Rose, states,

“The Microsoft cloud has become a core component to the strategies of thousands of UK organizations since the launch of services from our UK cloud regions in 2016. We continue to make significant investments to ensure that our customers are able accelerate their digital transformation journeys and their adoption of cloud services. By doubling our UK regions and increasing our compute capacity by more than 1,500%, our customers can have the confidence they can access any Azure services available in UK regions whenever they want. The launch of Availability Zones takes Azure to a new level in the UK by offering customers increased reliability, business continuity and peace of mind for their data and services.”

In addition to the new Availability Zones, the company has also announced the general availability of Azure DevOps in the South Region. This will allow users residing in the area enhanced access to the company’s suite of software development tools.

Microsoft has long been invested in the UK, and notes its customer base of as many as tens of thousands of businesses invested in their platform from within the country. One of these customer’s is ClearBank, with its COO Nigel Walder noting that: “We welcome Availability Zones in UK South as it will enable us to provide improved resilience and scalability more effectively as ClearBank continues with the launch of new products. Since the inception of ClearBank, Azure has been a core component of our platform and the enhanced zonal resiliency will ensure we can serve our customers even more effectively.”

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.