Microsoft has scored its first win for the New Zealand Azure hyperscale cloud region, with Auckland Transport signing on for the yet to be opened facility.
The double data centre facility is currently under construction in Albany.
AT's general manager of business technology at AT Roger Jones told media that AT is looking to save $2.5 million a year with the shift to Azure.
The agreement means AT will shift from hosting servers on-premises to consume cloud-based services, being able to scale its needs up and down without taxpayer funded capital expenditure in times of high demand, or being saddled with unused capacity when it falls.
Apart from substantially lower latency for users compared to Azure regions in Sydney and SIngapore, sustainability played a role in AT's decision to go with Microsoft in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Azure region will be powered by a hundred per cent renewable energy, and use waterless cooling to dissipate heat.
“At its core, this agreement is about smarter use of resources: using less of the planet’s precious resources, optimising operations and increasing our internal capability to make the most of data and modern technologies," Jones said.
"All of this will help us become a much more agile, efficient organisation that will deliver better services across the region and improve the liveability of our city for many decades to come,” Jones added.
.jpg&h=298&w=480&c=1&s=1)
