Where are the data centers hosting the hexagonal cloud regions of Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle located? Some suppliers remain very discreet on the subject. The JDN reveals their locations.
On June 30, 2022, Google formalized the launch of a cloud region in France. After IBM in 2014, Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2017, Microsoft Azure in 2018 and Oracle in 2021 and 2022, the American tenors of the cloud therefore now market all their services on infrastructures located in France. The opportunity for the JDN to look at these data centers and their locations.
Three data centers at Google, two of which have been identified
Both Amazon and Google cultivate a strong culture of secrecy regarding the precise location of their cloud regions. According to several sources, the French region of AWS which has three availability zones is divided between the data center of Interxion in La Courneuve, the DC3 of Scaleway in Vitry-sur-Seine and the data centers of Data4 in Paris-Saclay. . Three campuses successively 17 km apart as the crow flies.
On the Google side, the France region of the group, which also has three availability zones, is distributed, according to our information, over at least two data centers. When it was launched, the Mountain View group nevertheless indicated that it backed this region with three remote data centers. So far, we have only identified two. These are the data centers of Global Switch in Clichy-La-Garenne and Digital Reality (parent company of Interxion) in Ferrières-en-Brie in Seine-et-Marne. Equipment that opened recently, in September 2021. The two sites are located 30 kilometers apart.
A Google spokesperson confirms the veracity of this information. Following these revelations, he underlines: “Our Cloud region in France is indeed based on three data centers.” It remains to find the third site.
At IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, whereabouts communication is much more transparent. Mono-zone of availability, the France region of IBM Cloud is installed at Global Switch in Clichy. On the Microsoft side, the Azure France Central region and its three availability zones are based at Interxion in La Courneuve. As for the Azure France Sud region, which is single-zone, it is deployed in the MRS1 data center of the same provider in Marseille.
Like Microsoft, Oracle has chosen two cloud regions for France, one based in Ile-de France, the other in Marseille. Each has a unique Availability Zone. Similarly, Oracle chose Interxion’s centers. Still in the same logic as the Redmond company, Larry Ellison’s group opted for its Courneuve site and its Marseille infrastructure, but retaining for the Marseille city a more recent data center (MSR2) cooled via an underground river. .
Two distinct strategies
Between AWS, Google and IBM on the one hand, and Microsoft and Oracle on the other, two very distinct implementation strategies stand out. The former consolidate their IT infrastructures in Ile-de-France, where the latter prefer to deploy each two regions separated by more than 600 kilometers apart.
Similarly, policies differ when it comes to Availability Zones (AZs). At AWS, the three AZs offered in Ile-de-France are located in different data centers, which translates de facto into a relatively good level of redundancy. Same at Google. As for Microsoft, it goes so far as to federate the three AZs of its France Central region on a single IT complex. However, unlike AWS and Google, Azure offers an additional region in Marseille. This offers a de facto higher level of security.