Have you ever wondered what powers the cloud services you use every day? From video calls to online banking, from remote work to social media, there's a massive physical infrastructure humming away behind the scenes. Microsoft has opened the curtains on this hidden world through their Azure Global Infrastructure Experience—a virtual datacenter tour that offers an unprecedented look inside the technology that powers our digital lives.
What is the Azure Global Infrastructure experience?
The Azure Global Infrastructure Experience is an immersive, interactive 3D virtual tour that allows anyone to explore the inner workings of Microsoft's datacenter operations. Rather than requiring physical visits to secure facilities, this digital experience brings the datacenter to you, accessible from any PC or mobile device.
The tour showcases infrastructure spanning over 60 datacenter regions and more than 300 datacenters globally, giving visitors insight into the sheer scale of Microsoft's cloud platform.
Start your tour at Azure global infrastructure experience where you can see all the available datacenters and how they are connected.
Once you are ready to explore deeper, click on ‘Take a tour’ to get started.
A journey through the datacenter
Security first
The tour begins where every datacenter visit should—at the perimeter. You'll encounter the high-security measures that protect these critical facilities, including biometric scanners, badge clearance systems, and multi-layered security fences. These aren't just for show; datacenters house some of the world's most valuable and sensitive information.
Inside the server rooms
Once inside, the tour takes you through the heart of the operation: the server rooms. Here's where it gets fascinating. The environment is maintained at a comfortable temperature, typically between 70-80°F, with carefully controlled airflow keeping thousands of servers running optimally around the clock.
The latest update to the virtual tour includes insights into Microsoft's cutting-edge hardware, including Azure Cobalt, their in-house CPU that powers general compute offerings. This kind of custom silicon represents Microsoft's commitment to optimizing performance at every level of the infrastructure stack.
AI-powered guide
One of the most innovative aspects of the updated tour is an AI assistant powered by Azure OpenAI Service that offers real-time support during your visit. This virtual guide can answer questions about everything from cooling technologies to security protocols, sustainability practices to datacenter resiliency—making the experience both educational and interactive.
The global network
The scale of Microsoft's global network is staggering. With over 275,000 miles of lit fiber optic and undersea cable systems, the infrastructure connects datacenters across continents, ensuring low-latency access for users worldwide. The network includes more than 185 points of presence strategically placed to keep services within 25 milliseconds of 85% of the world's highest GDP-producing countries.
Sustainability: Building for the future
Perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of the tour is its focus on Microsoft's sustainability initiatives. The company isn't just building bigger—they're building greener.
Carbon commitments
Microsoft is working toward being carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050 aims to remove from the atmosphere an amount equivalent to all the carbon dioxide the company has emitted since its founding in 1975. That's not just offsetting future emissions—that's taking responsibility for the past.
The company has achieved this through several strategies, including becoming one of the world's largest purchasers of renewable energy. They're working toward what they call "100/100/0"—matching 100% of electricity consumption, 100% of the time, with zero carbon energy purchases by 2030.
Innovative cooling technologies
Traditional datacenter cooling is energy-intensive, but Microsoft is pioneering alternatives. The tour showcases advanced cooling methods like liquid immersion cooling, where AI chips on server blades are immersed in low-boil dielectric fluid. This approach improves performance while reducing both energy consumption and water usage.
Another innovation highlighted is adiabatic cooling, which uses evaporation rather than mechanical air conditioning. This method requires a fraction of the electricity needed for legacy datacenters and up to 90% less water than other water-based cooling systems.
Circular economy in action
Microsoft's Circular Centers recycle and repurpose servers and other hardware on site, with plans to extend server lifespans by up to 90% by 2025. This represents a fundamental shift from the "use and dispose" model to one focused on longevity and resource efficiency.
The building blocks of Azure
The tour also explains how Azure's infrastructure is organized, from individual datacenters to regions and geographies. Key concepts include:
- Availability Zones: At least three physically separate datacenters within a region, providing resilience and high availability with latency under two milliseconds between zones
- Regions: Geographic areas containing one or more datacenters, positioned to meet data residency and compliance requirements
- Edge Zones: Small-footprint extensions of Azure placed in population centers far from major regions, bringing services closer to users
- Geographies: Fault-tolerant groupings connected by dedicated high-capacity networking infrastructure
Experience it yourself
So if you have some free time left during the Christmas holidays, the Azure Global Infrastructure Experience is freely accessible to anyone interested in exploring the backbone of modern cloud computing.