Microsoft has today gone live with Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online hosted in data centres located in Australia.
The move is a key step in the rollout of Microsoft cloud services in Australia, with Azure Australia going live last October, but Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online up until now being hosted in Singapore.
Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online will use the same infrastructure as its Azure public cloud. While this is widely understood to be housed in NextDC in Sydney and Melbourne, neither party has ever confirmed this. A Microsoft spokesperson would only say the company "builds and leases data centre space around the world".
Office 365 partners can deliver geo-redundant backup as well as faster performance, said Microsoft’s director of partner business and development, Philip Goldie.
Microsoft announced the March timeframe for local hosting back in December.
Existing Office 365 customers with services hosted in its Asia Pacific region in Singapore will be automatically moved to Australia unless they opt-out. Customers will be given six weeks advance notice of their move date, which will occur out of business hours.
Existing CRM Online customers can contact Microsoft support to request a move.
Microsoft has also achieved IRAP security compliance, which approves Office 365 for processing, storing and transmitting unclassified sensitive government data. The assessment covered Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online and Skype for Business, as well as Microsoft's cloud and infrastructure operations and Australian data centre facilities.
Next: Partners speak about pent-up demand
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
