SAN FRANCISCO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. multinational tech leader Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to expand its cloud services in Europe and the Middle East to meet growing customer demand.

Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform of the top U.S. tech firm, revealed in an official Microsoft blog post the company's plans to increase its number of cloud datacenter regions and expand the global reach of its Azure and Office 365 services.

Microsoft intends to eventually add 12 new Azure regions to its current total of 38.

"We intend to be the first global cloud operator to introduce cloud regions in Switzerland, which will be in the cantons of Geneva and Zurich," Zander said.

Microsoft will also expand the cloud service options available with the addition of new cloud regions in Germany, and "the new cloud offering will complement the options currently available for customers today," he wrote.

The Microsoft Cloud in France is officially open to thousands of customers with the general availability of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365 today, and Dynamics 365 will follow in early 2019, he said.

Microsoft has two datacenters in France, with one located in Paris and the other in the south.

Office 365 customers in France can now use the new infrastructures and have the support from the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation when it takes effect on May 25, 2018.

Microsoft will deepen its investment in the Middle East to build the first two cloud regions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to keep up with the tremendous economic growth and technological innovation in the country and across the region, Zander said.

Microsoft has more than doubled the number of Azure regions over the past three years, with an ambitious goal to secure presence in 50 regions across the globe. It will expand the datacenters for customers of Office 365 and Dynamics 365 service with 17 geographies.