While COVID-19 has brought about an economic slowdown business globally, the US tech giant remains undeterred and has said it will do new hiring in India and make fresh financial investments in data centers. 

Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft in India, told TOI Dialogues in a special session on the IT industry, “Microsoft was among the first global data-centric companies to have India data centers. We have three data centers already operational in India and we are enhancing capacity and adding more... we are making sure that we continue to invest in that capacity within India.

On being questioned if the company would hire more, he said, "I would say that today we are, and our projection right now is that we will continue to." Maheshwari added that Microsoft wants to maintain its business plans in India, and "our investments will continue to create digital capabilities, technology capabilities, (and) innovation".

The decision to continue investing in data centers is the result of the pace of digitalization and strong growth in usage of cloud, and communication and collaboration platform MS Teams.

Commenting on the cloud and data centers, he said, "People are appreciating the value of data and how if you have data in the right format, what you can do with it to get insights and action done. To me, that is another piece that has seen a lot of usage in this time." This he spoke in reference to the growth that has been seen during the lockdown phase.

The company stores a large amount of data locally and has set up three data centers in the country, which are now being expanded. Maheshwari added that he gives a lot of credit to the frontline teams who realized that this will be required and is an essential service, and therefore the firm will need to continue to enhance to prepare for the future.

Earlier this year in February, to consolidate its presence in the engineering talent segment, Microsoft had also announced the launch of the India Development Center (IDC), National Capital Region (NCR). IDC NCR is Microsoft’s third Development Center in India, serving as a premier facility for driving innovation. The center will build on Microsoft’s commitment to tapping India’s world-class engineering talent to create solutions for global impact.