Microsoft’s investment in Finland will go beyond the $7.2 billion it’s shelling out for Nokia’s mobile and services group, the company revealed this week. Steve Ballmer’s firm has put aside $250 million for a new Nordic data center that will provide additional capacity for Xbox and Windows Azure users.

“Microsoft also announced that it has selected Finland as the home for a new data center that will serve Microsoft consumers in Europe,” the software giant stated in a release. “The company said it would invest more than a quarter-billion dollars in capital and operation of the new data center over the next few years, with the potential for further expansion over time.”

The facility will be joined by data centers in Singapore and Australia, Data Center Knowledge reported on Tuesday. Microsoft is planning to launch new Azure sub-regions in New South Wales and Victoria to address regulations that bar local organizations from backing up their data beyond the territorial jurisdiction of Australia.

Microsoft is not the only big name tech firm to recognize opportunity in the cool climate of the Nordic region. Three months ago, Facebook announced that it’s building an eco-friendly hydroelectric data center in Lulea, a small city located 600 miles north of Stockholm on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The facility will take advantage of the frigid Arctic wind to cool thousands of internally-designed servers for eight months a year.

Just as virtualization increases server efficiency by as much as 60 percent, modular architectures such as Facebook’s Open Rack standard offer double-digit reductions in electricity consumption and energy waste. This prospect for cost savings is driving more and more data center operators to adopt sustainable models.