In an effort to improve global data delivery, Microsoft has invested in fiber optic subsea cables that will stretch from North America to the UK and Ireland, a deal made with two fiber companies, Hibernia and Aqua Comms. The Hibernia Express Cable, as it’s called, will be the first of its kind to be built across the ocean in 12 years.

Hibernia wrote in a press release that the connection will improve capability, predictability and availability, adding, “The Express cable pair will yield in excess of 10 Tbps per pair, which is nearly triple the 3.5Tbps per pair delivered on the current systems.” The Aqua Comms cable (AEConnect), costing around $300 million and built by TESubCom, will connect Shirley, NY, and Killala on the West Coast of Ireland, and by using existing cables stretch to London and Greater Europe.

The Cross Pacific Cable Network

Redmond has also entered into a consortium with Asian telecom companies China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom and KT Corporation, whereby a landing station will first be built in the United States, which will connect China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and the United States, speeding up data delivery between the countries. The partnership, working with cable supplier TE SubCom, will form what has been called “The Cross Pacific Cable Network.”

Microsoft has said that such a development is crucial, and while the company says the project will provide jobs and invigorate local economies, it is necessary due to the expansion of its Cloud services, such as the Azure platform and Office 365.

In a blog post, Microsoft talked of CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile-first, Cloud-first vision that has resulted in 106 percent growth in its Commercial Cloud division, according to the company’s most recent earnings. The company stated, “As we expand our Cloud services and global infrastructure, we need a strong subsea strategy to ensure our customers experience high availability access to their data.”

Microsoft is not alone in improving such infrastructure, in 2014 Google, Inc. invested $300 million in its own subsea cable from the United States to Japan, while Facebook has also invested in underwater cables into the Asia-Pacific. If you want to see just how many cables lie under the ocean all over the world, here is a map showing where our information travels.

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