Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Plans For 2016

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)  have a lot of plans and is hoping that 2016 will be the year to hit key milestones in cloud and adjacencies. In the many plans that Microsoft has for 2016, Azure is at the forefront. According to CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft is gearing up to commission its U.K.-based data centers in late 2016, a move that should among other things help address data residency concerns of customers in the country.

With more than $15 billion already spent in building and expanding Azure, Microsoft is looking at a future where its cloud platform will become the attraction of cloud adopters. The company is looking to start activating various Azure operations in many regions of the world to expand the accessibility and capacity of the technology.

 Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is at war with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the race to dominate public cloud scene.

 

Related: Microsoft’s OneDrive debacle shows its cloud commitment is weaker than promised

Local data centers in U.K.

Among the plans that Microsoft has for 2016 is to commission its U.K. data centers to serve local customers. Initially, the company will start offering Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online from its U.K. data centers. Having local data centers is a strategy that Microsoft hopes will cool privacy concerns among its U.K. customers.

Already, Microsoft has received a commitment from the U.K. Ministry of Defense to use its cloud services once the U.K. data centers are commissioned.

Europe cloud hub

Microsoft has also completed building data centers in the Netherlands and Ireland as part of the data residency measures and creating a cloud computing hub for the European market.

Enriching Azure

In addition to building data centers to expand capacity and address privacy issues, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has also continued to enrich Azure cloud platform with more tools. Bringing more features to Azure to make it the go-to place for developers and cloud adopters is expected to continue in 2016 as CEO Nadella pledges what he called hyperscale public cloud. For example, the company plans to bring JBOSS middleware to Azure, thus putting it within the ranks of SUSE Linux Enterprise, Red Hat and multiple other Linux-based virtual machines that have been added to Azure.

Additionally, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is working to launch Azure Stack, which is a tool aimed at blurring enabling an on-premise version of Azure.

Source: InvestCorrectly