Office 365 services are now available from three data centers in India at Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.
That should mean slightly better performance (lower latency) for Office 365 users in India that are connected to one of those data centers.
Generally speaking, the location of your Office 365 data doesn’t make a lot of difference. Files and email can be accessed from anywhere. Microsoft can and does move customer data between data centers without people realizing it.
Having a closer data center to your usual location can very slightly speed up access, especially if your location relies on limited Internet connections to the rest of the world.
In any event, Microsoft says that Office 365 data is always saved in two separate data centers in case one location goes offline.
Data location is also an issue for privacy and data security. Any data that passes through a US based location, even temporarily, can be accessed by the US government.
Below is a list of datacenters that Microsoft “has elected to disclose to the general public”. It hasn’t been updated to include the Indian datacenters.
Notably, data from customers in Brazil, Europe, Japan and Asia/Pacific can be stored on US based servers – which is a problem for companies that are required to keep data storage within their country for legal reasons.
” The following are locations Microsoft has elected to disclose to the general public
North and South America
- Quincy, Washington
- San Antonio, Texas
- Chicago, Illinois
- and other United States datacenters ‡
Brazil
- Brazil
- United States
- Singapore
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Europe, Middle East, Africa
- Dublin, Ireland
- United States
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Finland
- Austria
Japan
- Osaka Prefecture, Japan
- Saitama Prefecture, Japan
- United States
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Asia/Pacific
- Hong Kong, China
- United States
- Singapore
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Government Plans
- United States
Australia
- New South Wales, Australia
- Victoria, Australia ” (source at 14 Oct 2015)
