Microsoft advancing 2 new datacenter projects in Brazil

Microsoft is advancing with the expansion of its datacenter infrastructure in Brazil.

The US giant confirmed it will develop a datacenter in the city of Sumaré, in São Paulo’s Campinas metropolitan region. The project had first been reported by local outlet O Liberal.

“Microsoft will expand its datacenter infrastructure in Brazil with the creation of a new site in Sumaré. As a result of our investment in the region, Microsoft is projected to generate 50 new direct jobs in the region,” the company said in a statement sent to BNamericas.

Despite the confirmation, Microsoft did not provide further details of the project, such as who will build it, the stage of the process, a development and construction schedule or estimated capacity.

“It is important to highlight that the expansion of datacenter infrastructure moves an entire technology ecosystem, generating hundreds of specialized jobs within the chain, in addition to allowing companies established in Brazil to enjoy the benefits of cloud services and cognitive services of high resilience and low latency,” the company added.

A document from São Paulo’s state environmental agency, Cetesb, shows that the company requested last September a "technical opinion" for the installation of a datacenter in Sumaré supplied by 21 generators.

As reported by the company to the agency, each generator will have a diesel tank, totaling 20 tanks with 30m3 capacity and one with 5m3 capacity.

Cetesb stated in the document that “the activity to be implemented is not subject to environmental licensing,” that is, it does not require specific watchdog licensing, but made a series of technical recommendations based on its guidelines for installing the tanks.

The watchdog also caveated that the document did not exempt Microsoft from obtaining other due approvals and licenses required by federal, state or municipal legislation.

The document mentions the installation of a site on a large plot of land by the administrative center of motorcycle maker Honda.

Nearby is also the headquarters of 3M do Brasil, the Sotreq industrial park and one of the world's largest Caterpillar dealers, among others.

HORTOLÂNDIA

BNamericas also obtained information about another datacenter in a recent request sent to Cetesb issued on behalf of Microsoft, this time for a datacenter in Hortolândia, a city neighboring Sumaré.

This document is dated July 7.

The request mentions the installation of a datacenter supplied by 39 power generators, each having a diesel tank, 36 with a capacity of 30m3 plus three with capacity of 9.6m3.

That would make it even larger than the one in Sumaré. The location is a large rural and unoccupied piece of land.

Hortolândia and Sumaré comprise the main datacenter campus of colocation giant Ascenty. Brazil's Odata also maintains a datacenter in Hortolândia.

Ascenty is currently developing three datacenters in Sumaré and one on Hortolândia:

- Hortolândia SP06 (São Paulo state, 31MW projected capacity)

- Sumaré SP03 (São Paulo state, 20MW)

- Sumaré SP04 (Sâo Paulo, 17MW)

- Sumaré SP05 (São Paulo, 20MW).

ALSO READ Snapshot: Ascenty’s pipeline of datacenter projects

Overall, Ascenty lists 34 datacenters in operation, development or construction in four countries: Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. Of the total, 24 are in operation and 10 in development/construction.

Of the 24 datacenters in operation, 20 are in Brazil and two each in Mexico and Chile.

MICROSOFT CLOUD REGIONS

Microsoft started operations in Brazil 34 years ago and launched its first cloud region in 2014.

Currently, the company operates two cloud regions in Brazil: Brazil South, located in São Paulo, and Brazil Southeast, in Rio de Janeiro, launched in 2021.

Each region features datacenters (Azure Availability Zones) deployed within a certain latency-defined perimeter. Each zone can comprise one or more datacenters.