One of the most important things in a cloud service is location. Everyone cares where they put their data. Sometimes it is for compliance reasons. Sometimes it is for performance. Sometimes the reasons are even fictional!
Azure now has 50 (announced) regions around the world, including:
- “Public” regions that anyone can use
- Government-only regions in the USA
- The German trustee regions, requiring a dedicated tenant
- The Chinese trustee regions, also requiring a dedicated tenant
And now some different ones have joined the list.
Microsoft just launched two new regions in Australia, that are designed for anyone requiring certification for Australian government service, like the Australian government. These regions, Asutralia Central and Australia Central 2 (both in southeast Australia!) are co-located in another company’s (Canberra Data Centres) two data centers and are connected to Azure via ExpressRoute.
Also launched are France Central (with generally available availability zones for 99.99% SLA) and France South, joining the two UK and two Europe regions.
Microsoft has also announced more Azure regions:
- Germany West Central and Germany North,
joining thewhich are not joining the trustee regions of Germany Central and Germany Northeast. These regions are surprisingly going to be a part of the European cluster of regions. - Switzerland North and Switzerland West, giving Swiss companies something local in Geneva and Zurich.
- UAE North and UAE Central in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The previously announced South Africa regions still are not generally available.