Microsoft's datacentres arrive in UK

Vendor launched three datacentres in London, Cardiff and Durham today

Microsoft Cloud launched in the UK today, with its first UK datacentres going live. Located in London, Durham and Cardiff, the datacentres will have Office 365 and Azure solutions available, with Dynamics CRM Online becoming available from the first half of 2017.

The new sites, the plans for which were originally announced in November 2015, add to the 100-plus datacentres the vendor has globally, and Microsoft claims to be the first global provider to offer complete cloud services from UK datacentres.

The Ministry of Defence and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have already signed up to use the services, as have Aston Martin and Capita.

Cindy Rose, chief executive Microsoft UK, said: "We're delighted to see such growing demand for Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics CRM Online from our new datacentres in the UK. We have been part of the UK's tech landscape for over 30 years and we're proud of the way this country leads the world in embracing technology and new ideas.

"With our trusted cloud now delivered locally, and our commitment to principles of security, privacy, transparency, compliance, and availability, we are well placed to support the digital transformation of organisations throughout the country."

The launch follows a lengthy court case involving the vendor which brought into question the privacy of data from US companies stored overseas. The FBI demanded in 2013 that Microsoft provide data from one of its servers in Ireland, and the FBI won a court case in April 2014 in which the vendor was told to hand over the data. However, Microsoft won an appeal in June 2016 which revoked the original ruling.

In the announcement about its UK datacentres, Microsoft reiterated that it was compliant with the international standards for cloud privacy, and that it had previously won the case against US search warrants being applied globally.