Microsoft’s commitment to supporting cloud infrastructure demand in the United States
We’re excited to share updates on our infrastructure expansion across the United States, which is designed to meet the soaring demand from customers for cloud and AI services.
We’ve recently revealed the Fairwater sites in Wisconsin and Atlanta. Now, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our East US 3 region in the Greater Atlanta Metro area, set for early 2027, alongside the expansion of five existing datacenter regions across the nation.
New Cloud Region Coming to Atlanta in Early 2027
Microsoft’s global cloud framework is the backbone of everyday life, technological innovations, and economic development. Standing out in the marketplace, we’ve built a global cloud infrastructure encompassing over 70 regions, more than 400 datacenters, 370,000 miles of terrestrial and underwater fiber, and over 190 edge sites, establishing it as one of the most substantial, trusted, and secure options worldwide.
Our datacenter network in the Greater Atlanta area currently houses some of the most sophisticated AI supercomputers available. By early 2027, this area will broaden to accommodate all our customer workloads from the new East US 3 datacenter region, specifically designed to handle cutting-edge Azure workloads while ensuring a foundation of trust for all organisations.
The East US 3 region will enhance resilience through Availability Zones—distinct physical datacenters equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking. These zones allow organisations to enhance their disaster recovery planning by ensuring data is stored across various locations, thus increasing tolerance to failures.
Our commitment to the community is evident in our datacenter community pledge. We strive to create digital infrastructure that addresses societal needs and offers advantages for the communities in which we operate and where our employees live. The East US 3 region will adhere to Microsoft’s sustainability goals regarding carbon, water conservation, and waste management. We aim for LEED Gold Certification in Georgia, ensuring environmentally friendly and efficient operations.
Providing a Robust Cloud Infrastructure
We empower all types of organisations to embrace a resilient cloud strategy that maximises the capabilities of the cloud. The cloud isn’t just one location; it’s a vast network of regions across the US and globally, facilitating access to Azure services and resources from various geographic areas.
Our infrastructure initiatives across the United States respond to the demand for improved resilience, agility, and flexibility in today’s cloud landscape. Currently, six datacenter regions with Availability Zones (AZ) are up and running, and we’ll be implementing AZs in the following existing regions:
- North Central US by the end of 2026.
- West Central US in early 2027.
- US Gov Arizona in early 2026.
In 2026, we will introduce Availability Zones in regions where three zones already exist, including East US 2 in Virginia and South Central US in Texas. This expansion will provide additional Azure capacity to help customers grow confidently and offer various options for a multi-region cloud architecture. Adopting a multi-region strategy strengthens application performance, reduces latency, and enhances the resilience and availability of cloud applications.
Many organisations are already using Azure to innovate their applications in the AI era with a strong cloud foundation:
- The University of Miami: This top-tier educational and research institution, located in Hurricane Alley, sought to bolster its disaster recovery capabilities and migrate crucial assets to the cloud with Microsoft Azure. By leveraging Azure’s availability zones, the University now safeguards operations against outages, promoting reliability and enhancing agility in meeting evolving business needs while reducing costs.
- The State of Alaska: The State is cutting costs through infrastructure consolidation and the decommissioning of outdated systems. By migrating to Azure, they are enhancing both reliability and security while overcoming geographical challenges.
Supporting Our Government Customers
We are dedicated to enabling strong, compliant cloud strategies for our government clients. In early 2026, we will broaden our Azure Government presence by adding three Availability Zones in the US Government Arizona region. This will provide agencies and partners with more options for zone-redundant architectures that can enhance recovery time (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO), in line with CMMC and NIST standards.
This expansion addresses the increasing need for segmented, resilient infrastructures that protect sensitive workloads while adhering to regulatory availability and security requirements. The Arizona datacenter region offers unique advantages for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) in terms of proximity, latency, and mission alignment, presenting a compelling alternative to US Government Virginia for new deployments.
These efforts complement our earlier launch of the Azure for US Government Secret cloud region this year, underscoring our dedication to secure, compliant, and mission-ready cloud solutions. Check out how Microsoft is advancing AI and infrastructure innovation in our H200: Accelerating AI at Scale blog.
Elevate Your Cloud Strategy
Take advantage of the Cloud Adoption Framework to meet your cloud objectives, equipped with best practices, documentation, and essential tools for your business and technology strategies.
Utilise the Well-Architected Framework to enhance your workloads, guided by a roadmap for developing reliable, secure, and high-performing solutions on Azure.
By opting to deploy your services through any of our Azure regions, you can tap into a vast and resilient infrastructure that Microsoft is developing across the United States. This strategy not only ensures flexibility and resilience but also lays the groundwork for innovative solutions that foster economic progress and a well-connected future.
