Microsoft, the tech giant, has invested $3 billion (€2.76 billion) in Europe in cloud computing, and says it is going to start offering services out of data centers in France from next year.

The company made this announcement in Dublin at a Tech Gathering with Satya Nadella delivering the news to everyone.

Better Cloud Access

Cloud computing isn’t just about single destinations. He said this while he was outlining the plans of the company to create a global hyper-scale cloud.

He said that they now had more than thirty regions across various parts of the world which were working to ensure cloud access was available to everyone.

Transforming Microsoft into the first mobile-first, cloud-entity in the world has been one of the key strategies of Nadella since he took over as CEO.

This push to cloud computing has made it possible for Microsoft to double their computing capacity and has allowed them to deliver these services in Europe as well.

European Data Centers

Among the investments the company has made, there has been a marked growth in the data centers which they are operating in Europe including countries like Britain and Ireland. Nadella said that he didn’t see any impact from the decision of the United Kingdom to sever ties with the European Union as far as the commitment of the company to the region is concerned.

In Germany, Microsoft has recently opened a couple of data centers. They also have arrangements which allow the access of customer data to be controlled by one of the subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom.

In the meantime, Microsoft has turned its focus and is now trying to make the cloud more inclusive, responsible, and trusted. They have also published a book which contains more than seventy-eight recommendations when it comes to public policy which needs to be achieved by everyone.

Nadella has said that since new technology like the cloud is now available, one of the most profound things which will happen is change. This will be of two types, disruptive and rapid.

The Change

It is vital for companies such as Microsoft and most of the tech community and even governments that they start having broader dialogue where technology is looked at closely, and the question about whether a particular technology is going to benefit the masses or not is asked regularly. Is the technology going to help in solving any of the issues that are pressuring us today?

Nadella said that the book was a firm step by Microsoft in their attempts to propose a number of policy considerations and ideas for broader discussion which is going to help them come up with ways in which the disruptive technologies can help with the global growth in ways which are more responsible, inclusive, and trusted.

Cloud computing does have the potential to solve some of the most challenging issues we are facing today, perhaps such as preventing governments from going deep into debt, realizing that high taxes kills job, realizing that burdensome regulations stifle job growth, but with the pace at which technology is advancing, it raises a number of important questions too. It is critical for everyone to work together at this point to build a cloud which will help with the greater good.

Not sure what the greater good is? It is pretty much the opposite of what happens in Cuba. Industrialized nations on this planet are not doing well and serious change is needed. Perhaps the cloud is one such answer.