Microsoft Invests In Undersea Cable Projects 41
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft announced today that it will partner with a group of telecom companies in order to build new undersea cables. A new cable will connect data centers in China, South Korea, and Japan to the West Coast. Microsoft hopes the New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network will improve connection speeds and boost its competitiveness in cloud computing. They also made deals with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, to invest in a cable with each company connecting Microsoft's datacenter infrastructure from North America to Ireland and the United Kingdom. A company announcement reads in part: "Additionally, we joined a consortium comprised of China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, KT Corporation with TE SubCom as the cable supplier. As part of our participation in the consortium, Microsoft will invest in its first physical landing station in the US connecting North America to Asia. The New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network will provide faster data connections for customers, aid Microsoft in competing on cloud costs, all while creating jobs and spurring local economies. The goal of our expansions and investments in subsea cables is so our customers have the greatest access to scale and highly available data, anywhere."
A worrying trend (Score:2, Insightful)
Software companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook) are investing in internet infrastructure because they are out of ideas.
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May I suggest Kerbal Space Program,
Yes, it's definitely a 'shoot em up,' but not the same ol' shit. You build and shoot off rockets, spaceplanes etc using actual orbital mechanics.
Extremely hard. Doesn't hold your hand. You will fuck up. Most amazing game I've played. (2 1/2 years)
Just came out of early access.
https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/en/
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Software companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook) are investing in internet infrastructure because they are out of ideas.
Or does this reflect some kind of market inefficiency where it makes more sense for a software company to run cables across the ocean than to deal with the telecoms who already specialize in such things? Perhaps the existing service providers abuse their market power too much, to the degree that people would rather DIY.
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It just shows that at a certain level of volume it makes more sense to produce the product yourself. These companies need to move terabits of traffic long distances. If they did this purely by leasing capacity from traditional telecoms they would be paying millions of dollars per month. For that kind of money, you can build one hell of a transport network and then have control as well as cost savings. Unfortunately with Submarine routes the only reliable way to get fiber in the cable is to be a member of t
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It seems odd to hear the geek complain when the big corporation spends substantial sums on global infrastructure.
Slashdot isn't what it used to be. Today, whatever gets posted, it's set upon like blowflies on a wildabeest carcass with people saying how they hate it.
It costs good money to fertilize that lawn those damn teenagers are walking on.
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The NSA isnt the problem.
China Telecom
Thats the problem. Look up who they are and who is the hand that feeds them.
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Comparing the NSA to the Chinese MSS can only be done by one who is completely in ignorance of them.
They out to compete for the Seattle market (Score:1)
Message to Microsoft: when your HQ employees only have access to Comcast (Pray you don't have a problem) and CenturyLink (Pray you don't need bandwidth), you'd be really well served to increase local capacity (a-la Google Fiber) to your local markets.
Good job sending more fiber to Asia, though.
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It's official! (Score:1)
Pretty soon Microsoft is going to be underwater.
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I sea what you did there.
Use up that cash pile... (Score:3)
This is good (Score:3)
Microsoft continues to have vast amounts of cash; that some of it is going to be used to build some useful infrastructure is a good thing. However the idea that this is best value for shareholders, who surely invested in a software company, is less obvious.
Fundamentally, a large part of what MS is selling today is its cloud services. Software subscriptions, OneDrive, MS hosted Exchange, Cloud computing, etc...
Better data links can be helpful with that. Think load-balancing or parallel processing or insurance against depletion of resources. If someone makes a bad call or an unexpected load comes up rapidly beyond their planned needs, low-latency connections let them offshore the needed resources for a day or two while they work to bring in a few thousand ne
Thanks - helpful comment (Score:2)
In other words ... (Score:2)
Microsoft is investing in tasty network capacity for its cloud computing so the NSA et al will be able to demand access.
I sincerely hope everybody tells MS to go piss up a rope because they can't be trusted.
Because, as long as the Patriot Act is in effect, Microsoft can't be trusted. Nor can any US cloud provider.
This will be interesting... (Score:2)
...as every past partner to a project with M$ has not been very happy (except Darryl from SCO).
I expect that IBM will be taking bets.