Case Study: Microsoft Corporation reduces capital investments and expands datacenter capacity with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute

Microsoft IT Reduces Capital Investments, Expands Datacenter Capacity by Moving to the Cloud

Microsoft IT, which supports Microsoft’s global business (200k+ end users, 400+ locations, seven datacenters and a portfolio of more than 1,100 line-of-business applications across ~40,000 servers), faced rising business demands while datacenters ran out of space, average server utilization was under 30%, about 10,000 servers were nearing end of life (requiring >$200M in capital spending), and three datacenter sites were slated for closure. At the same time, shifting application traffic to cloud services stressed Internet-facing infrastructure and highlighted the need for redundant, reliable connectivity for business-critical apps.

To address this, Microsoft IT adopted a hybrid-cloud strategy centered on Microsoft Azure and Azure ExpressRoute, redesigning 90+ applications for Azure Virtual Machines and deploying dual 10 Gbps ExpressRoute links (with self-service provisioning) to extend datacenter capacity virtually. The move enabled rapid workload migration (250 server workloads in the first month), avoided large capital expenditures on new servers, delivered redundant high-bandwidth private connectivity with predictable performance and improved security, and simplified network management while increasing options for continuity and disaster recovery.

Microsoft Corporation

Brad Bell

General Manager, Network and Infrastructure