Microsoft to build $250 million data centre in Finland

Microsoft claimed all the headlines on Tuesday with its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services unit. The company, along with the massive deal, has also announced its plans to build a massive global data centre in Finland itself.

The company, as part of its official announcement, has said that it plans to pump in more than $250 million in terms of capital as well as for the operation of the data centre. Microsoft’s new Finnish data centre will cater to all the company’s European customers.

Microsoft, according to Data Center Knowledge, already has another primary European data centre in Ireland and plans to expand to other regions around the world, like Australia and Southeast Asia. The report also suggests that the Finnish data centre will help to expand Microsoft’s Internet infrastructure to support its growing Azure Cloud services and Xbox Live gaming service.

Microsoft planning to build $250 million data centre in Finland

Microsoft’s announcement yesterday has fueled existing speculation that Microsoft may be considering ex-Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to take over the company after current CEO Steve Ballmer. Ballmer recently announced that he would be retiring from heading the company within the next 12 months. A noteworthy point to consider is that Elop, before joining Nokia, headed Microsoft’s Office division for quite a few years, according to the report.

Microsoft is not the only company to eye the Nordic region for its data centres, though. Google already has a data centre in Finland, while Facebook recently set up a massive server farm in Sweden.