Cloud software giant
Microsoft is planning to close two of its data centers. In what will be a hybrid cloud project spanning the next four years, the move will see Microsoft transition services provided by the datacenters to its own Azure cloud platform. This will replace thousands of traditional servers and the migration will be complete at the end of 2018.
The move will be managed by Microsoft's IT Service Deployment and Operations (SDO) division and is part of the corporation's bid to modernize its infrastructure. Functions like training systems and finance will be moved to the cloud. The strategy counters issues relating to Microsoft's leased facilities, which it plans to close, and the replacement of servers in five global datacenters as they come to the end of their lifespan. Replacing the servers would cost around $200 million.
Microsoft's strategy requires its existing applications to be moved to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas) solutions, while commodity workloads, such as everyday e-mail, collaboration, and messaging, will be run on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. Fresh developments will be moved to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions.
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