Microsoft today announced it will deploy an Azure Extended Zone to Perth by mid-2025, which it described as a “significant extension” of its global data centre footprint.
This follows Microsoft's announcement in 2023 that it would spend $5 billion on computing infrastructure in Australia over the following two years. At the time, it expected its local data centre footprint to increase from 20 sites to 29 across Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.
Today, it announced that it expected the Western Australian Government to be one of the first organisations to use the new infrastructure in Perth.
Microsoft also expected resources companies Roy Hill and Northern Star Resources to “quickly benefit” from expansion of Microsoft’s infrastructure, according to the announcement by Microsoft.
“This will enable us to host critical workloads providing high-performance, secure, scalable and reliable services local to our head office in Perth and mine sites in Western Australia,” stated Northern Star Resources information technology Manager, Stephen Johnston.
The new infrastructure extends Microsoft’s partnership with the Western Australian Government, which includes existing agreements on cloud and cybersecurity technologies.
Microsoft contributed to the development of the Digital Industries Acceleration Strategy and is a member of the Western Australian Government’s Digital Inclusion Leadership Forum.
[Update] The day after this story was published, Microsoft announced that its New Zealand hyperscale cloud region was open for business.
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