Microsoft plans to open two datacentres in Germany at a cost of over €100 million, Handelsblatt and WirtschaftsWoche reports-- despite the relative failure of a previous attempt at offering cloud services for the country.
Back in 2015 the company, in order to allay German data security concerns (and comply with strict privacy laws), collaborated with "data trustee" Deutsche Telekom to create Microsoft Cloud Deutschland, a cloud offering with extra-secure ring-fenced data. However the service was not very popular, due to high pricing and a lack of flexibility in lifting and shifting data.
The failure was surely even more galling for Microsoft due the currently booming German cloud market. According to IDC Germany leads the 2018 W. European cloud market, with revenues reaching $7.4 billion, and German customers are willing to leave data to the likes of Amazon, SAP and IBM.
Microsoft has no comment on the story in the two newspapers, instead stating “many customers with particularly sensitive needs, for example in the public sector, prefer our German cloud offering. We give customers the choice."
Go Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom's "German Cloud" Wafts Away (Handelsblatt)
Go Microsoft to Open Two Cloud Datacentres in Germany (WirtschaftsWoche)
