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Microsoft Invests In Undersea Cable Projects

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."

41 comments

  1. A worrying trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Software companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook) are investing in internet infrastructure because they are out of ideas.

    1. Re:A worrying trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they still got a cloudy idea. Besides, when M$ had a genuinely new idea, as opposed to embrace/extend.

    2. Re:A worrying trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, did you think the WWII to 1990s growth spurt was eternal? It's stopping, and as it does, we will have to adjust our social models. Guess what? There's no such thing as eternal growth, even the universe eventually slowed down, we think we're different?

    3. Re:A worrying trend by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      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.

    4. Re:A worrying trend by westlake · · Score: 1

      It seems odd to hear the geek complain when the big corporation spends substantial sums on global infrastructure.

    5. Re:A worrying trend by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      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 the consortium building it. You can't come along years later and buy dark fiber because it's all in use quick.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    6. Re:A worrying trend by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    7. Re:A worrying trend by chilenexus · · Score: 1

      Out of ideas, or to protect themselves from ISPs that seem intent on using bandwidth as an excuse to throttle connections to their sites and extort money from them? If they become peers to the ISPs (becoming ISPs themselves), then the arguments that comcast/verizon/AT&T use against content providers like Netflix will fall apart and they'll have to go back to hatching new evil schemes.

  2. NSA problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Who exactly wants to move their private personal and business data to this 'cloud' you speak of?
    Because we know that cloud is based in Utah and run by military men who even spy on their own government.

    1. Re:NSA problem by LordLimecat · · Score: 2

      The NSA isnt the problem.

      China Telecom

      Thats the problem. Look up who they are and who is the hand that feeds them.

    2. Re:NSA problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, we in the US only worry about the NSA because it is a rogue US government agency apparently violating the US Constitution. I have little doubt that the rest of the world is pretty much fucked by their own governments and they can't even go crying about the rule of law or human dignity or some such nonsense.

    3. Re:NSA problem by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Comparing the NSA to the Chinese MSS can only be done by one who is completely in ignorance of them.

  3. Politica-ma-larchy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    all while creating jobs and spurring local economies.

    Local to whom? Asia, who is on one side of the connection? Or North America, who is on the other side of the connection?

    Or, more uselessly (and, therefore, probable), do they mean the local economies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

    Captcha: rigging

  4. Re:Let the hacking begin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Latency, moron.

  5. New: No No No! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "the New Cross Pacific (NCP)" - anyone who deploys infrastructure or creates a product with "New" in the name, even creating a new acronym out of it, is clueless! In 5-10 years time the thing is no longer new! What do they build next, "the New New Cross Pacific (NNCP)" cable?

  6. They out to compete for the Seattle market by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    1. Re:They out to compete for the Seattle market by Dorkmunder · · Score: 1

      Amen to that! As someone living in Seattle who can't get any good access (even if I decided to sacrifice a firstborn child and go with Comcast I wouldn't be able to as they don't support my area) I'm actually shocked that Microsoft hasn't seen that they could make bank just bringing Seattle into the 20th century of broadband (I know, I'm not asking for much).

  7. Windows 10 will be awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Windows 10 will be so great every story related to Microsoft should be about it. Not about some useless trivia.

  8. It's official! by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    Pretty soon Microsoft is going to be underwater.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:It's official! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I sea what you did there.

    2. Re:It's official! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty soon Microsoft is going to be underwater.

      LOL

      Seriously though, how close is Microsoft to fully funding its pension obligations (other than by using Microsoft stock)?

  9. This is news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft invests in undersea cables becomes news?

    What year is this? 1985??

    C'mon, man! There are so many undersea cables crisscrossing all the major oceans and new cables are being pulled every single day

    Even if it is a slow-news-day this piece of non-news should not have appear in /.

  10. Not only software companies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spotify can't seem to find a way to make money -- http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/11/2158218/how-spotify-can-become-profitable

    Online news outlets are not making money either

    Any exciting new video games lately? Same old shoot-em-up?

    Even those suppose to deliver contents ( infotainments / edumercials, etc ) are regurgitating the same old stuff

    The Net boomed during the 1990's, settled down near the end of the previous decades and now it's in decline, and unless someone figure out a way to inject brand new contents I do not foresee any meaningful 'growth' (in terms of substance) for the Net

    1. Re:Not only software companies by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      "Any exciting new video games lately? Same old shoot-em-up?"

      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/

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
  11. Who is Microsoft's customers? NSA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Well, I can't help but wonder if Nsa is a customer to Microsoft.

    Btw, i feel weird about getting a free upgrade from Win7 to Win 10, why is this free?

    1. Re:Who is Microsoft's customers? NSA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Btw, i feel weird about getting a free upgrade from Win7 to Win 10, why is this free?

      think windows store and ads on lock screen & live tiles
      lol this is going to be offtopic

    2. Re:Who is Microsoft's customers? NSA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It means that MS can claim 10 billion devices running Windows 10.

  12. West Coast? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A new cable will connect data centers in China, South Korea, and Japan to the West Coast

    The west coast of...?

    1. Re:West Coast? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The home country of Microsoft? Come on, that should be obvious.

  13. Use up that cash pile... by Bruce66423 · · Score: 2

    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.

    1. Re:Use up that cash pile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft is not a software company.
      Microsoft used to be a software company. Then they sold to 97% of the PC market, and couldn't grow in market share. In fact, they already had too much market share, which attracted anti-trust investigations in America and Europe.

      The only way to grow is to branch into other markets. So Microsoft is a company that is searching for new ways to get income. The company still has a very large software division, which is a useful foundation, but that is not what Microsoft is focused on. They can't look to extend their market share of software because any attempt to do so would harm the efforts of dealing with the threat of governments taking issue with behavior that is deemed to be anti-competitive. If they make another product that has enough quality that they get an increase of market share in some way, that might be fine, but Microsoft can't be primarily focused on that.

      That's why Microsoft is not focused on being a company about software, anymore.

  14. Moving business out of th ereach of US courts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't infrastructure, it's saving their non-US business.

    1. Re: Moving business out of th ereach of US courts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And within reach of the Chinese government. I'm sure Microsoft will do their best to protect the data.

      I suspect this has more to do with cheap Chinese resources.

  15. This is good by Etherwalk · · Score: 2

    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 new machines locally, for example.

    Data links they control also improve security. MS actually has pretty good privacy policies, people, and security compared to other providers; the more third-party companies involved in that, the less secure it is.

  16. In other words ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  17. This will be interesting... by Demonoid-Penguin · · Score: 1

    ...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.

  18. The big sucking sound..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    of US IT jobs going overseas again.....

  19. Thanks - helpful comment by Bruce66423 · · Score: 1

    n/t