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With a mega-investment in a network of Belgian data centers, the tech giant Microsoft wants to give a boost to digitization in our country. ‘This could trigger a wave of innovation.’
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As the global economy digitizes, we need computing power. Lots of computing power. To satisfy this data hunger, the tech giant Microsoft is rapidly building data centers around the world to provide local and super-fast access to its smart cloud technology Azure.
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Now it is our country’s turn in that investment offensive. At a press conference on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it has started to make Belgium a so-called ‘data center region’.
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The essence
- Microsoft is making Belgium a ‘data center region’ in its global cloud infrastructure.
- This investment should give Belgian companies access to local data storage and super-fast computing power.
- According to the tech giant, this possibility can support a wave of innovation and accelerate the digitization of our country.
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The tech company is building data centers at three locations in our country. The points of that triangle are far enough apart to physically separate them as a safety measure, so that, for example, in the event of a fire or accident, the entire network is not endangered. But they’re also close enough to communicate seamlessly – within 2 milliseconds – so they can work as one fluid whole.
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Microsoft will use existing infrastructure that it will fully upgrade. Its exact location is not disclosed for security reasons. Just that it is in the vicinity of Brussels, where a lot of economic activity is concentrated.
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Drones in chrirurgie
The network of the data centers should become the locomotive to which the partners of Microsoft – about 4,000 in Belgium – can hook up their innovation plans. By embedding the cloud locally, the company not only meets the demands of many customers to store data locally, it also ensures low latency, the response time of the computing power they are calling on. That ultra-low response time is necessary in a range of innovations that come our way.
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‘The possibilities are endless,’ says Didier Ongena, general manager of Microsoft BeLux in conversation with De Tijd. ‘Think of a surgeon who wants to use augmented reality during an operation. It cannot afford the slightest hiccup. The same goes for the self-driving vehicles that some of our customers want to experiment with. Or think of drones. Today, a third of ambulance use is taken up by the transport of organs and blood. You can do that perfectly with self-steering drones, if you have enough powerful technology to support it.’
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These investments will strengthen our digital competitiveness.
Alexander De Croo
Prime Minister (Open VLD)
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Turbo
Microsoft is convinced that the investment will boost economic growth and the digitization of the Belgian economy. A study commissioned by Microsoft itself by the research firm IDC claims that the cloud investment will indirectly create 60,000 jobs in four years and generate €31.5 billion in new revenue for our economy.
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‘Our economy is making the transition from a knowledge economy to a data economy,’ says Ongena. “We’re actually coming to a new starting line. Every company, in any sector, evolves to a greater or lesser extent in the direction of more technology. With this investment we want to bring them better equipped to the new starting line.’
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That may cost something. Microsoft does not want to share details about the amount in return for competitive reasons. But Ongena does want to give an idea of the magnitude in which Microsoft is playing with its data centers. ‘This involves an amount with nine zeros.’
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Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD), who followed the press conference virtually from quarantine, is enthusiastic about Microsoft’s plans in our country. “This commitment is accompanied by investments that will strengthen our digital competitiveness and create new economic opportunities across the country, opportunities that will benefit all players in our ecosystem.”
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It is not yet entirely clear when this super-fast cloud access will be available to Belgian customers. The construction of the data centers has started, but due to the complexity of the operation, this will take time. ‘In terms of complexity, you can best compare it with building a hospital,’ says Ongena. “Maybe the timing will match that.”
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Energy-consuming, yet economical
Data centers have a bad reputation for being energy gluttons. That perception deserves some context, says Didier Ongena, general manager Belux at Microsoft. ‘It is true that data centers require a lot of energy. But because of the economies of scale, the cloud is much more efficient than maintaining your own server capacity to run applications.’
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‘An application that runs in the cloud is good for 98 percent less CO2emissions than on a local server and 90 to 93 percent less energy consumption. Since today only 10 to 15 percent of applications run in the cloud, there is still a lot to gain there.’
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Ongena also emphasizes that the data centers will run entirely on green energy. ‘Because we are a global company, we don’t have to get it from the local market, so that we don’t disrupt the supply of green energy here.’
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