Microsoft to put up data Center in the Country
Valor Econômico
Microsoft is getting ready to set up a data center in Brazil. The premises, whose construction still has no defined location, will be part of the global data center structure of the company, built to store and manage users' information from all over the world. Microsoft still has no data center installed in Latin America. According to Hernan Rincon, Microsoft's vice-president for the region, the Windows creator will install three data centers in Latin America until the end of the next tax year of the company, which ends in June, 2010. The countries that will receive the investments, affirms Rincon, have not yet been defined, but as it was verified by Valor with a source close to Microsoft, the decision of building one of the structures in Brazil practically has already been taken.
Microsoft has already carried out the first stage of technical studies in countries like Brazil, Mexico and Chile. All have met the first requirements of the company. "Now, we are at the stage of analyzing issues of safety and privacy", says Rincon. With the data centers, Microsoft intends to be closer to major clients, mainly those related to the public authorities, affirms the executive.
This week, Microsoft completes 20 years of direct presence in Brazil. The subsidiary company, says Rincon, is going through a stage of investments because it is among those which grow the most in the world. Currently, Microsoft has 2.2 thousand direct employees in Latin America, among which nearly 600 are in Brazil. Rincon does not disclose the investment required to install the data centers in the region, but he says Microsoft will probably build its structures from zero, even though the possibility of the company's possibly making some acquisition has not been ruled out.
Data centers are often synonyms of major disbursements. Microsoft, decided to face Google in the promising world of cloud computing, has not refrained from making investments in these structures, erecting large data centers all over the world. Only in the United States, the company spent US$ 2 billion in the last three years to build four data centers in the State of Washington.
The investment plans in Brazil are not limited to the installation of a data center. Michel Levy, Microsoft's CEO in the country, says the company has just gained a systems development center aimed at corporate management software. The laboratory was put up in São Paulo and currently has nearly 20 professionals. That team's work, says Levy, is to create "pieces" of software that will be integrated to the Microsoft Dynamics, corporate management system of the company. "It is not a mere software translation or location. We are creating new modules, aimed at the specific needs of the companies and governments of the country".