Microsoft Corp. is continuing to expand its Azure public cloud platform, saying it plans to add new regions in Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Microsoft made the announcement Wednesday shortly after details of the expansion plans were leaked to media. The company said it’s planning to add two regions in UAE, one each in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai, which will be its first in the Middle East. It will also add two regions in Switzerland, in the cities of Geneva and Zurich. It didn’t say where its new German regions would be located.

The new Germany regions could be especially significant as Microsoft needs to provide options that help its customers in the European Union meet new data-residency requirements. Those requirements demand that companies store data on EU citizens within their country of residence.

Microsoft in 2015 partnered with T-Systems International GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom GmbH, to act as a data trustee in its German regions. The agreement stipulates that T-Systems can control access to customers’ data in its Magdeburg and Frankfurt facilities, if they so desire.

Microsoft has more than doubled the number of available Azure regions it operates in the last three years, as it races to expand its cloud platform to match similar expansions by its primary rival Amazon Web Services Inc. The company also has plans in the pipeline to open an additional 12 regions.

In addition to expanding Azure, Microsoft said it’s also making Office 365 and Dynamics 365 available in more regions. This will allow it to offer “in-geo” residency in most of the 17 regions where these services are currently available, it said.

Microsoft declined to provide any dates for when the new regions will go live.

Image: Microsoft