Microsoft to open Azure regions in Spain, expands Telefonica relationship

Microsoft is planning to open a datacenter region in Spain at some point in the future, its first in that country. It also is extending its customer and business relationship with Telefonica. Telefonica now is calling Microsoft "its strategic cloud partner," as part of the February 25 announcement.

Microsoft officials said today they will be delivering Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform from new datacenter regions in Spain. The company did not provide an estimated opening date, just like it declined to do last week in announcing it would be opening its first cloud region in Mexico.

Microsoft officials also said they would "leverage Telefonica infrastructure" as part of today's announcement. And Telefonica will be accelerating its use of Microsoft cloud technology internally as part of the arrangement, the pair said in a press release.

In February 2019, Telefonica and Microsoft announced a partnership via which Telefonica would use Azure and Microsoft AI services as a base for its own AI-powered networking technology. The pair said they would be working together to identify AI, blockchain, 5G and edge computing opportunities.

Today, the pair said they'd be working together on 5G, edge computing and "Industry 4.0" scenarios, leveraging capabilities delivered from Microsoft's coming Azure datacenter region in Spain. Telefonica also pledged to using Microsoft cloud technologies for its own internal operations. Telefonica already has deployed Microsoft 365 to some of its employees, according to today's press release.