Organisations within the UK are adopting Cloud technologies at a rate that is rising significantly. In a report published by Eurostat, research claims that 41.9% of British enterprises use some kind of Cloud service, mostly email and data storage, with the EU-wide average is 26.2%. Microsoft data centres are at the centre of promoting cloud storage.
This makes the UK the sixth largest Cloud user amongst European Union (EU) countries.
The cloud data storage market is now estimated to be worth £3.4bn in the UK alone and is growing rapidly. However previous to now, Cloud Computing contracts with Microsoft for highly regulated UK industries such as Healthcare, National Defence and Public Sector were not possible due to a variety of strict regulations specifying that the data must be stored within the UK and not housed at a data centre in Europe.
In 2016, Takeshi Numoto – Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Cloud + Enterprise announced that Microsoft Azure and Office 365 are now available at data centres in the United Kingdom in London, Durham and Cardiff as well as an underwater DataCentre in Orkney.
Microsoft Azure is used by the Department of Education, HM Revenue and Customs as well as the NHS Blood and Transplant. Many councils across the UK also use Microsoft Azure’s Cloud data storage. In April 2019, Microsoft announced that its Azure regions in the UK have now doubled in size, growing over 1,500% since the UK data centre launch in 2016.
To add to this Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose explained that Microsoft are now very well placed to support the Digital Transformation of organisations throughout the country as a result of their on-going commitment to principles of security, privacy, transparency, compliance and availability.
The benefits of Microsoft’s UK data centres
Data compliance and security
The Microsoft Azure data centres in the UK instil much higher trust levels when it comes to data security. These are primed to protect client servers from disturbance with tiered access, CCTV and more – giving any business enterprise grade IT Security. The data centres also meet the data compliance regulations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Easily accessible data
Data centres in Microsoft Azure in the UK are always available, this means that your business data is in your country but is physically accessible if you wish to maintain your servers. Microsoft Azure’s data also has multiple connectivity links, ensuring you always have access to your business data and applications.
Faster running Microsoft applications
Microsoft customers who are based in the UK also benefit from faster-running apps as the Microsoft Office 365 applications can now operate without the delay of sending data overseas.
Infinity Group are Microsoft Gold Partners and if you are interested in Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Office 365, please get in touch.
