Will go live in 2022 and ‘effectively double’ capacity in the Middle Kingdom Share Microsoft has revealed it plans to open a fifth Azure region in China. The forthcoming “China North 3” region will “effectively double the capacity of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud portfolio in China in the coming years” says the software giant’s announcement. As required by Chinese law, Microsoft won’t own or operate the new bit barn. That job falls to 21Vianet, the Chinese company that Microsoft has worked with behind the Great Firewall since 2014. Microsoft says the new bit barn will be open sometime in the year 2022 and that the doubling of capacity will happen “in the coming years”.