Microsoft announced the move at a business conference on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Rolf Haupter, President for Microsoft Europe, Middle East, and Africa, unveiled the USD 1 billion project during the European Economic Congress in the southern Polish city of Katowice.
Microsoft said in a statement that its newest "trusted cloud region," the first in Central and Eastern Europe, “consists of three independent physical locations around Warsaw, each consisting of one or more data centres.”
Haupter stated: “Connecting Poland to the largest trusted global cloud infrastructure is significant support for the resilience of the country, society and organisations, and the development of the Polish Digital Valley.”
The company added that the cloud centre “guarantees the highest standards of security, privacy and regulatory-compliant data storage in the country.”
The Poland-based cloud centre will give users of the Microsoft Cloud platform a “significant competitive advantage” in terms of “maximum operational speed and reducing overload and latency to an absolute minimum,” according to Microsoft.
The company added that customers "will receive tools and capabilities for better business scalability and global expansion, which will allow them to grow and compete in the global market.”
Microsoft cloud centre will help turn Poland into regional tech hub’: PM
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki welcomed the project, telling reporters that “Microsoft’s investment in Poland will accelerate our country’s transformation into a technology hub for the Central and Eastern European region.”
Morawiecki said: ”Thanks to the development of the Polish Digital Valley, hundreds of engineers and developers will be able to play a key role in the global economy without leaving the country. This is responsible development.”
Morawiecki added that “in times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, it is also very important to maintain the highest standards of data storage security.”
The prime minister stated: “Building resilience in this regard is crucial for the Polish economy and society.”
Morawiecki described Poland as “a magnet for American investment,” adding that Microsoft’s project “underlines the confidence in Poland and the Polish government.”
Later in the day, the Polish prime minister met with Microsoft’s Haupter “to discuss the company's investments in Poland,” according to officials.
Microsoft cloud centre in Poland to be worth USD 1 bn: US envoy
In a video message to the European Economic Congress, the US ambassador to Warsaw, Mark Brzezinski, said that the Microsoft cloud centre would be worth USD 1 billion, giving Poland data-storage security and reflecting the depth of Polish-American relations, the PAP news agency reported.
Brzezinski also said, as quoted by Microsoft: “The essentials to a successful transformation are trust, security and innovation, which are the foundations for the successful development of the economy. I am glad that Microsoft has been investing in Poland’s development for several decades.”
The US envoy added that Poland and America "have never been more connected," including through economic and technological cooperation, according to PAP.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Digitisation Minister Janusz Cieszyński told the conference in Katowice that the government would launch "a EUR 700 million loan scheme for companies interested in cloud transformation," the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, Microsoft