Microsoft says its new New Zealand facility will create thousands of jobs and pump money into the economy.
The tech giant's today opening its first "hyperscale" data centre in Auckland's Westgate to power cloud-based software and AI tools.
It will ensure local organisations' data can be stored, processed and backed up locally, addressing sovereignty issues for the Government and banks.
Managing Director Vanessa Sorensen told Heather du Plessis-Allan they plan to train up 100,000 people over the next two years.
She says it's going to supercharge the country's digital transformation and enhance data residency, security and compliance.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's launch day for Microsoft. They've got that big hyperscale
data center. The thing costs more than three hundred million
dollars to build. It's out in west Auckland, and Microsoft
reckons it's going to help upscale more than one hundred
thousand workers here in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Vanessa Sorenson is the managing director of Microsoft in the country.
Have Vanessa, hello, how are you well? Thank you? What's
the benefit of having this thing actually in New Zealand
because the Internet is sort of borderless, right, so does
it make the cloud faster for us or something like that?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
One hundred percent no latency. It's basically going to supercharge
the country's digital transformation and it's going to help accelerate
that enhance data residency, security and compliance.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And so how long have we got before we max
it out and we need another one?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
No one needs to worry about that. We've certainly built
a robust with you know, ten to twenty years in
mind and saying that New Zealand is an incredible country
to invest in. And so we have bought more Land
to expand.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Now, oh, you have bidmore Land to expand?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
What like, yeah, adjacent, it's never adjacent but certainly within
the region. And yeah, we're just because of the incredible
contract with Contact Energy and the sustainability angle. Using geo
thermal is just another incredible opportunity as more and more
businesses want to move from unsustainable infrastructure into incredible, reliable,
(01:22):
sustainable infrastructure. So yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I was going to ask you about the power because
these things are really power hungry a and we are,
i mean incredibly short of power weirdly in New Zealand
at the moment. So have you got yourselves a good
deal locked in?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We certainly have. So we've just we've signed a ten
year contract which is basically with us doing that, it's
enabled Contact Energy to invest by expanding a tear hooker
a three power station so they can generate fifty one
point four megawatts of reliable and renewable energy throughout the year.
So what I'm what's incredible about this, it's you know,
(01:58):
it has been our mission to replenish more water and
than it consumes, and our data center will be the
first it or be one hundred percent water free as well.
So you know, not only is it going to be
the most sustainable where we're putting energy back on the grid.
But it's highly, highly sustainable, So incredibly proud of this.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Why did you choose to base yourselves in west Auckland
Because I can't imagine that that is cheap land.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Look, it's all about ensuring that it's not in a floodplaine,
that it's not. You know, we're a very movable country
in terms of earthquakes and the like. So certainly before
I was able to announce this incredible investment four years ago,
we had a team scouting New Zealand for a good
eighteen months to work out the best location access. You know,
(02:45):
we look at everything about even making sure you can
get to it if something happened to motorways and things
like that. So there's a real art and science to
where we decide to purchase land.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh I see, okay, all right, now, explain to me
how this is going to benefit hundred thousand workers. How
does that work?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, I mean, look at the acceleration, right, we're certainly ai.
I mean that wasn't even in the picture when we
launched that we were coming. But it's just we've seen
this in every single country that we launch, and I
think this is what our opportunity is for New Zealand
using it to upskill and so we're investing a lot
of money in training and enablement. I'm very proud of
(03:26):
our ten k Women initiative, which was over a couple
of years. We wanted to basically have ten thousand women
be accredited, consider a role in tech, earn more money
and that's been incredible. So now we're going to extend
that to one hundred thousand learners by twenty twenty seven.
We're just going to be free certification training. You can
(03:47):
go up to certain levels and we feel that then
there's more high power paying jobs basically for people. So
it's really what we have seen and an IDC report
basically stay that. You know, this cloud adoption is going
to be twenty three point nine billion in revenue for
New Zealand, which is about six percent of GDP, and
(04:09):
they said it will create about one hundred and thirty
four thousand new jobs across cloud adopting organizations and service providers.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Brilliant stuff, Heyvnissa, thanks for running us through it sounds incredible.
Vanessa Sorenson, Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director
Speaker 2 (04:22):
For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
It's launch day for Microsoft. They've got that big hyperscale
data center. The thing costs more than three hundred million
dollars to build. It's out in west Auckland, and Microsoft
reckons it's going to help upscale more than one hundred
thousand workers here in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Vanessa Sorenson is the managing director of Microsoft in the country.
Have Vanessa, hello, how are you well? Thank you? What's
the benefit of having this thing actually in New Zealand
because the Internet is sort of borderless, right, so does
it make the cloud faster for us or something like that?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
One hundred percent no latency. It's basically going to supercharge
the country's digital transformation and it's going to help accelerate
that enhance data residency, security and compliance.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And so how long have we got before we max
it out and we need another one?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
No one needs to worry about that. We've certainly built
a robust with you know, ten to twenty years in
mind and saying that New Zealand is an incredible country
to invest in. And so we have bought more Land
to expand.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Now, oh, you have bidmore Land to expand?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
What like, yeah, adjacent, it's never adjacent but certainly within
the region. And yeah, we're just because of the incredible
contract with Contact Energy and the sustainability angle. Using geo
thermal is just another incredible opportunity as more and more
businesses want to move from unsustainable infrastructure into incredible, reliable,
(01:22):
sustainable infrastructure. So yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I was going to ask you about the power because
these things are really power hungry a and we are,
i mean incredibly short of power weirdly in New Zealand
at the moment. So have you got yourselves a good
deal locked in?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We certainly have. So we've just we've signed a ten
year contract which is basically with us doing that, it's
enabled Contact Energy to invest by expanding a tear hooker
a three power station so they can generate fifty one
point four megawatts of reliable and renewable energy throughout the year.
So what I'm what's incredible about this, it's you know,
(01:58):
it has been our mission to replenish more water and
than it consumes, and our data center will be the
first it or be one hundred percent water free as well.
So you know, not only is it going to be
the most sustainable where we're putting energy back on the grid.
But it's highly, highly sustainable, So incredibly proud of this.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Why did you choose to base yourselves in west Auckland
Because I can't imagine that that is cheap land.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Look, it's all about ensuring that it's not in a floodplaine,
that it's not. You know, we're a very movable country
in terms of earthquakes and the like. So certainly before
I was able to announce this incredible investment four years ago,
we had a team scouting New Zealand for a good
eighteen months to work out the best location access. You know,
(02:45):
we look at everything about even making sure you can
get to it if something happened to motorways and things
like that. So there's a real art and science to
where we decide to purchase land.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh I see, okay, all right, now, explain to me
how this is going to benefit hundred thousand workers. How
does that work?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, I mean, look at the acceleration, right, we're certainly ai.
I mean that wasn't even in the picture when we
launched that we were coming. But it's just we've seen
this in every single country that we launch, and I
think this is what our opportunity is for New Zealand
using it to upskill and so we're investing a lot
of money in training and enablement. I'm very proud of
(03:26):
our ten k Women initiative, which was over a couple
of years. We wanted to basically have ten thousand women
be accredited, consider a role in tech, earn more money
and that's been incredible. So now we're going to extend
that to one hundred thousand learners by twenty twenty seven.
We're just going to be free certification training. You can
(03:47):
go up to certain levels and we feel that then
there's more high power paying jobs basically for people. So
it's really what we have seen and an IDC report
basically stay that. You know, this cloud adoption is going
to be twenty three point nine billion in revenue for
New Zealand, which is about six percent of GDP, and
(04:09):
they said it will create about one hundred and thirty
four thousand new jobs across cloud adopting organizations and service providers.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Brilliant stuff, Heyvnissa, thanks for running us through it sounds incredible.
Vanessa Sorenson, Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director
Speaker 2 (04:22):
For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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