Microsoft today shared updates on the progress of its datacenter region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following a recent site visit by a delegation of government officials from the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) as well as Microsoft executives from the company’s headquarters and Saudi Arabia. The global technology company announced the completion of construction on all three Azure availability zones, with availability anticipated in 2026.
Located in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, each of the three Azure availability zones features independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. They will be equipped with state-of-the-art hardware to enable government and private sector companies in Saudi Arabia to seamlessly run their workloads in the cloud with low latency and high availability options.
The new datacenter region in Saudi Arabia will offer enterprise-grade reliability and performance combined with customer privacy, data residency, and high-speed latency standards on par with the rest of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure of more than 60 Azure regions – one of the largest and most secure in the world. The investments are consistent with Microsoft’s commitment to empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more and include a focus on responsible cloud practices including security, digital safety, privacy, compliance, and transparency, as well as adherence to Microsoft’s core values and ethical principles.
The completion of the construction phase is a testament to Microsoft’s 25-year presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the company’s continued commitment to empowering public and private sector institutions to harness technology to drive business and economic growth. Microsoft, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), announced its intention to develop a cloud region in Saudi Arabia in February 2023, in response to strong demand for its highly trusted and scalable enterprise-grade cloud solutions from organizations of all sizes and across all industries. Once operational, the datacenter region will be pivotal in accelerating progress towards the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a global hub of innovation, trade, and investment.