Microsoft announces fourth India cloud region in Hyderabad; facility to support AI workloads

Microsoft on Monday announced its fourth cloud region in India, with the technology major making its India South Central region in Hyderabad operational as it expands its hyperscale cloud infrastructure in the country.

Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia, said the Hyderabad region adds to the company’s existing cloud regions in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. The new facility has been designated a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South and will be among Microsoft’s largest investments in India in terms of computing capacity.

Hyderabad region to have three availability zones

The India South Central region has a resilient three-zone architecture and is designed to support artificial intelligence workloads from day one. Microsoft said its data centre regions across India are now AI-enabled, with AI-capable hardware, high-efficiency cooling systems and the platform infrastructure required to run advanced AI workloads.

The company said additional Azure and AI services are planned for the Hyderabad region. As supported services become available, organisations will be able to deploy eligible sensitive workloads in India using controls designed to address security, compliance and data-sovereignty requirements.

Chandok said the Hyderabad facility has been designed to require effectively zero water for cooling. He said water consumption and electricity sourcing have emerged as two key considerations for data centre infrastructure globally, particularly as computing requirements increase.

Microsoft has contracted 1 GW of renewable energy

Microsoft has contracted 1 GW of renewable energy capacity in India, of which 630 MW is already flowing, Chandok said. The company is also building 5 million litres of groundwater replenishment capacity.

Microsoft has committed to becoming carbon negative, water positive and zero waste. Chandok said the company’s infrastructure strategy includes measures to replenish water resources alongside the expansion of computing capacity.

The Hyderabad region forms part of Microsoft’s US$20.5 billion commitment to India and is intended to add operational capacity for the country’s growing cloud and AI requirements.

Adani Group, HDFC Bank among early customers

Leading enterprises and critical infrastructure organisations, including Adani Group, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank and PB Pay, have already signed up on the new region, Microsoft said.

India currently has around 2 GW of data centre capacity, according to Chandok. He expects the country’s capacity to expand six to seven times by 2035 as demand for computing infrastructure rises.

The anticipated growth is expected to be supported by increasing AI workloads, which require significant computing capacity and supporting infrastructure. Microsoft’s Hyderabad region will add to its existing cloud footprint as demand for such capacity expands in India.