Microsoft Azure Global WAN
Over 270,000 km of lit fiber and subsea systems connecting Microsoft data centers in 60+ regions
Open it on the earth: cut a link, lose a siteWorkbook (DC Sim template v1.4)
The story
Microsoft operates one of the largest enterprise and cloud telecommunications backbones in the world, with over 270,000 km of lit terrestrial and subsea fiber. Designed to support Azure, Office 365, Teams, and Xbox, the network employs a 'cold potato' routing philosophy where customer traffic enters Microsoft's private network as close to the user as possible and remains on Microsoft fiber across oceans. Key hubs in Boydton, Quincy, Dublin, Middenmeer, Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney anchor inter-region synchronisation.
Notable
- One of the largest private networks in the world, spanning more than 165,000 miles of lit fiber.
- Co-owner and anchor tenant of major subsea cables including MAREA, AEC-1, and trans-Pacific systems.
- Traffic enters the Microsoft WAN through edge points of presence located close to end users worldwide.
- Provides sub-millisecond local network switching backed by custom WAN optimization hardware.
Sites
| Code | Place | Role | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| BVD | Boydton (East US), United States | primary | Microsoft |
| QNC | Quincy (West US 2), United States | primary | Microsoft |
| DUB | Dublin (North Europe), Ireland | primary | Microsoft |
| AMS | Middenmeer (West Europe), Netherlands | primary | Microsoft |
| NRT | Tokyo (Japan East), Japan | primary | Microsoft |
| SIN | Singapore (Southeast Asia), Singapore | primary | Microsoft |
| SYD | Sydney (Australia East), Australia | primary | Microsoft |
Links
| From | To | Type | Capacity | Length | Year | Protected | Est. one-way latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BVD | QNC | backbone | 10,000 Gbps | ≈ 3,576 km (great circle) | — | yes | 55 ms |
| BVD | DUB | submarine | 10,000 Gbps | ≈ 5,698 km (great circle) | — | yes | 67 ms |
| DUB | AMS | submarine | 10,000 Gbps | ≈ 757 km (great circle) | — | yes | 14 ms |
| QNC | NRT | submarine | 8,000 Gbps | ≈ 7,881 km (great circle) | — | yes | 84 ms |
| NRT | SIN | submarine | 8,000 Gbps | ≈ 5,311 km (great circle) | — | yes | 64 ms |
| SIN | SYD | submarine | 6,000 Gbps | ≈ 6,306 km (great circle) | — | yes | 91 ms |
Latency marked ≈ is our estimate from the great-circle distance × 1.5 at 5 µs per km, not the operator's figure.
Sources
- Azure global network overview · Microsoft · 2023-11-20
- Global Infrastructure: Data Centers and Network · Microsoft · 2024-01-01
Part of the open famous data centers dataset (CC BY 4.0). Updated 2026-10-15.
What is Microsoft Azure Global WAN famous for?
Over 270,000 km of lit fiber and subsea systems connecting Microsoft data centers in 60+ regions
How many sites and links does Microsoft Azure Global WAN have in this dataset?
7 sites and 6 links, of which 0 are recorded as not protected. Figures are from the public sources listed on the page.
Who operates Microsoft Azure Global WAN?
Microsoft