Summary: Microsoft is adding an additional 31 edge sites on its network for Azure. Microsoft’s edge sites are nodes that offer application acceleration, network management and edge caching as well as other services. The idea is to improve latency, increasingly a frequently sited issue with public cloud services. Microsoft’s roll out is particularly aimed at the gaming market, and should be seen in the light of Microsoft’s Project xCloud, a key plank of Redmond’s long-term strategy for the company. Microsoft plans to trial streaming over 5G in Korea next month, and latency – or lag as it is known in the gaming world – is critical. With this rollout Microsoft says users can reach 80% of global GDP with sub 30 milliseconds latency. The new nodes will bring Azure’s total number of edge sites to more than 150 when completed. That compares to AWS’s current 178 edge locations and Google’s 134 network edge locations. Of the 31 sites, many are in locations that would not strike anyone as being ‘edge’, such as London, Tokyo and Frankfurt. But many are also in Tier 2 urban locations.
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