Microsoft is poised to open its datacenter in Taiwan at the end of this year or early 2022, according to industry sources.
The datacenter is expected to target business opportunities from the medical care, finance, government and other sectors that require data storage locally, the sources noted.
Figures from IDC show Taiwan's public cloud market will grow to US$1.65 billion in 2024 from 2020's US$790 million, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) being the largest service provider in Taiwan's IaaS segment with a 50% market share in the second half of 2020. Microsoft's Azure was the second largest with a share of around 20%, followed by Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and Far Eastone Telecommunications (FET).
Microsoft's cloud business in Taiwan in 2020 was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic as the software giant's clients are mostly semiconductor companies, who had reduced spending in cloud-related investments amid the epidemic, the sources stated.
AWS and GCP both enjoyed growths in Taiwan in 2020 as their clients are mostly from gaming, entertainment and e-commerce industries that enjoyed strong demand in the wake of the pandemic, the sources noted.
However, the situation may turn favorable to Microsoft in 2021 and beyond as Taiwan's semiconductor companies have begun expanding capex in 2021 to cater to increasing demand for chips and components, the sources said.
Microsoft's strong partnerships with Taiwan's cloud service providers will also allow its platform to expand its presence in Taiwan quickly, the sources added.
Microsoft will open a datacenter in Taiwan
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