Corporate Vice-President for Azure Marketing at Microsoft Kathleen Mitford. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar’s first Microsoft datacenter region, which was officially launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Microsoft yesterday, provides the largest number of cloud services at launch in the history of the global tech giant. With over 240 cloud services, businesses of all sizes and industries can now host their cloud workloads in Microsoft’s Qatar datacenter to avail enterprise-grade reliability and performance.
In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula on the sidelines of the launch of the new datacenter region in Qatar, Corporate Vice-President for Azure Marketing at Microsoft Kathleen Mitford (pictured) said the Qatar datacenter launch is now a template for Microsoft’s future launches for other datacenter regions globally.
“We have over 60 datacenters, more than any of our competitors or hyperscale cloud providers. We’re so excited about the Qatar datacenter region. This datacenter region is opening with more services than we’ve ever offered before with a datacenter launch. And this is actually going to be the template for future datacenter regions that we will launch. We continue to expand our datacenters globally each year,” said Mitford.
With the launch of the datacenter in Qatar, customers can now begin leveraging Microsoft Azure to develop advanced applications using AI, data and analytics, IoT and hybrid capabilities with advanced digital security and more, as well as Microsoft 365, the world’s productivity cloud that delivers best-of-breed productivity apps delivered seamlessly through cloud services.
The newly launched Microsoft datacenter region will also help Qatar in its drive towards sustainability, said Mitford. Using Microsoft Azure is up to 98 percent more carbon efficient than using traditional enterprise datacenter.
“When we build our datacenters, we build them with sustainability in mind. That’s really important to us at Microsoft to make sure our datacenters are sustainable. We have a goal at Microsoft to be carbon neutral by 2030,” she said.
Mitford added: “We’ve seen a lot of excitement in Qatar about how the cloud can help customers accelerate their digital transformation and all the possibilities because of this global datacenter. Qatar is well positioned for the future, especially with the government commitment to technology, and the commitments that they have made with technology, not only for the World Cup, but the impact that is having on things such as smart cities, healthcare, and even culture. I think that is a big advantage that Qatar has for not only attracting talent but also setting themselves up for the future”.
And with the proliferation of cyber crimes and its impact to various organisations and businesses, Mitford reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to cyber security.
She said: “Microsoft is a large security provider in the world. Not only do you have a local datacenter here that allows you to have that data residency, you have a very trusted cloud with Azure because of our commitment to security as well.
“And if you look at Microsoft in security, in 2022, we had a security business that was over $15bn. We are analysing 43 trillion events that come in everyday, and employ over 8,500 security experts, and we spend $4bn a year on security. So when you think about the investment that Microsoft is making in security, not only for today, but also to help companies make sure they are protected for the future,” she added. Mitford also said that diversity and inclusion, which are a big part of Microsoft’s corporate culture, also flows through its datacenter regions globally.
“At the corporate level, Microsoft is very much committed to diversity, and inclusion, both with women and with all types of different races as a core part of our culture. And that flows through to every region and every country. We hold ourselves accountable as leaders and employees to Microsoft commitment to diversity and inclusion,” she added.
Meeting customers’ demand for secure, scalable and local cloud services, Microsoft customers across industries, including the MCIT through its national initiatives such as TASMU PLATFORM, and Qatar Digital Government, as well as the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, and many others, have already embraced the Microsoft Cloud to develop digital capabilities and innovate in their industries.
In collaboration with MCIT, Microsoft has also recently launched the digital center of excellence, which targets to skill, re-skill and digitally skill over 50,000 people by 2025.
