Koh Alfred, CEO of Microsoft Korea, talks to reporters in Seoul on March 20, 2018. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Microsoft Korea, the local unit of U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp., said Tuesday that sales of its open cloud computing platform Azure rose nearly three-fold in one year.
Microsoft opened two data center regions in South Korea for Azure in February 2017, one in Seoul and another in the southern port city of Busan. The company’s data center regions are large complexes that serve a given geographic location considered a core area for cloud computing service.
“Sales from Azure data service grew 277 percent (on-year in 2017),” Koh Alfred, CEO of Microsoft Korea, told reporters in Seoul.
The executive also said sales of its other cloud computing service, Office 365, jumped nearly 40 percent on-year during the cited period.
Earlier, Microsoft added artificial intelligence (AI) functions to Office 365, allowing Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel to be backed up by various cloud-powered AI capabilities through data centers in South Korea that employ machine learning capabilities.
“Data centers located in South Korea are world-class cloud computing facilities that boast safety and functionality,” Koh said.
Microsoft currently operates 50 Azure regions across the world, with 13 of them located in Asia, and offers cloud computing service in some 140 countries.
Cloud computer services have become one of the core infrastructures for the Internet of Things, big data and other new Internet technologies. Major players, including Amazon and IBM, have become front-runners in the South Korean market.
(Yonhap)
