Microsoft Azure cloud region settles over desert in Doha, Qatar
- Reference: 1660648334
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/16/azure_cloud_region_qatar/
- Source link:
The Qatar Azure cloud region was [1]first announced in December 2019, months before the effects of COVID-19 hit. The pre-pandemic announcement now feels quaint as it contained a promise to accelerate the Qatari government's efforts for digital transformation with a completion date of 2021. That date was eventually delayed to 2022.
"In the coming two weeks we will be launching the region globally, but definitely the datacenter is already here in Qatar," Lana Khalaf, general manager of Microsoft Qatar, told local media outlet [2]The Peninsula in late June.
[3]
Khalaf said the datacenter would create 24,000 new jobs and that Microsoft would train 50,000 people over the next five years.
[4]Google Cloud expands to Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand
[5]Alibaba's lights are on in Australia, but hardly anyone is home
[6]Cloud, on-prem ... we've got the network service to rule them all, says AWS
Despite the launch, Microsoft's Azure [7]website showed no products available in Qatar at the time of publication.
The company does have Azure regions nearby in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
[8]
Google Cloud is also playing catch-up in the area. Although it currently has no cloud regions in the UAE or Qatar, the company [9]said it has plans elsewhere in the Middle East – in Tel Aviv, Israel; Doha, Qatar; and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Alibaba Cloud, meanwhile, opened a [10]region in Dubai in 2016.
AWS [11]plans to open a cloud region in the UAE this year. The company already has a one in Bahrain, and plans for another in Israel.
[12]
Microsoft Azure [13]said on Monday that the new datacenter in Doha will offer "additional resiliency for… applications by designing the region with unique physical datacenter locations with independent power, network, and cooling for additional tolerance to datacenter failures."
The new region makes Qatar the 55th for Azure globally. ®
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[1] https://news.microsoft.com/en-xm/2019/12/11/microsoft-plans-to-establish-new-cloud-datacenter-region-in-qatar/
[2] https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/27/06/2022/microsoft-cloud-datacenter-region-in-qatar-to-launch-globally-within-two-weeks
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yvu-KRDWbHgW5Czd9wCmbgAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/10/google_cloud_malaysia_thailand_nz/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2016/11/27/alibabas_lights_are_on_in_australia_but_hardly_anyone_is_home/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/14/aws_wan_service/
[7] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/global-infrastructure/services/?regions=qatar-central&products=all
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yvu-KRDWbHgW5Czd9wCmbgAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/#multi-region
[10] https://www.alibabacloud.com/global-locations#J_5392902970
[11] https://aws.amazon.com/local/middle_east/infrastructure/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yvu-KRDWbHgW5Czd9wCmbgAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-microsoft-azure-available-from-new-cloud-region-in-qatar/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Maybe it's accounting for possible high death rate, so jobs would be short lived...
Training 50,000 people for 24,000 jobs means Microsoft must expect a lot of churn over the first five years.
re: I'm pretty sure that 24k is an overestimate...
Well one man can spin up 8 disks...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k44uoVm0lPI
The usual guff, I just don't see how a datacentre that is largely managed remotely and automated can generate those jobs.
As for running the services, why does moving a server into the cloud generate jobs? It may move some but that is all.
Virtue signalling
It's interesting if Microsoft is going to dare virtue signalling in Qatar.
Or the money is more important than principles?
Pecunia non olet, eh?
Just what the planet needs
More data centers in hot desserts. All jobs figures in big projects are bogus, including as many temporary construction workers as possible and wild assumptions of future workers to make it sound great whilst in reality employing as few as possible to keep margins stratospheric.
When virtualization took off we cut our rackspace usage by 80% for client hosting, the costs of public clould are massively over priced.
Re: Just what the planet needs
Mmm, hot dessert.
But serious, yep, this is going to require a ridiculous amount of air conditioning, and you can't exactly use water to cool your radiators either, it's going to be air to air, with air temperatures approaching 50C in summer.
I really hope they put a proper solar array on top and adjacent to it, it would provide shade plus power during the daytime.
Re: Just what the planet needs
and what happens when the sand gets into the works?
Re: and what happens when the sand gets into the works?
Ideal for isolating malware, etc.
Re: More data centers in hot desserts.
AKA Suez Pudding.
Khalaf said the datacenter would create 24,000 new jobs and that Microsoft would train 50,000 people over the next five years.
Aren't most jobs in datacentres like these doing tasks like racking the servers, replacing discs etc? I'm pretty sure that 24k is an overestimate...