We can't keep data in Oz: Microsoft

Even if Microsoft were to build a datacentre in Australia to host its cloud services, it couldn't guarantee that data would remain local, according to Michael Cooper, senior product manager for the company's virtualisation and system centre business group.

In an interview with ZDNet Australia, Cooper pointed out that part of Microsoft's business model was to have large datacentres to capatalise on economies of scale, and that having a datacentre in every country wouldn't appease those concerned about the location of their data.

"We can't guarantee that data is going to stay [in a specific country]," Cooper added.

The reasoning is that in the case of failure, datacentres are set up to back up data using another datacentre at a different location. In this way, loss of data through localised disasters, such as power failures or hurricanes, can be avoided.

This global method of back-up has enabled Microsoft to drop a lot of the usual safety features running in other datacentres.

"Some of our datacentres we don't even run generators at," Cooper said. "We don't have a lot of [storage area networks]. We're not big fans of air conditioning." The servers at the non-cooled datacentres run at around 10 to 32 degrees Celcius, according to the executive, adding that such measures made for enormous savings.

Whether to include some form of climate control depends on the location, according to Cooper. In Singapore, for example, humidity is filtered out of the datacentres, he said.