Microsoft has announced today its commercial cloud services Azure and Office 365- from local datacenters in India. These services from local datacenters will be available by the end of year 2015. This announcement was made by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, during his press conference in New Delhi. Satya Nadella is on two days visit to India after assuming office of CEO of Microsoft.
According to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s cloud services in India have grown over 100 percent in revenue in the past year, and the commitment to offer locally hosted Microsoft Azure and office 365 will accelerate public and hybrid cloud adoption significantly in India.
“Microsoft is deeply committed to helping people and organisations thrive in our mobile-first and cloud-first world- that is why we are proud to offer our commercial cloud services through datacenters in India, said Satya Nadella. “With more than 250 million Indians using internet-connected devices today, there is incredible demand and opportunity for India with Microsoft cloud services.”
According to Microsoft, its locally available cloud services will open opportunites for banking, finacial services and insurance companies, state-owned enterprises and government departments to adopt the public cloud. The services to be offered via the local datacenters will create new avenues for Microsoft India’s 10,000+ partners. Several Microsoft partners such as HCL, TCS, Wipro, and ISVs such as Newgen Software and Nucleus Software, have built cloud offerings with Microsoft Azure and Office 365.
Microsoft India boasts of key customers in India and the top 20 companies of India are already using its services. Some of these companies such as Bajaj Finance, Fortis Hospital etc. are benefiting from adoption of Microsoft’s cloud technologies.
To enable small and medium businesses in India to benefit from its cloud offering, Microsoft has also announced a new Cloud Accelerator Program to support customers at adopting them. Besides this, Microsoft will continue to empower local start-ups by providing Azure credits worth $60,000 through the BizSpark+ inititative which already has enrollments of over 4800 start-ups. Microsoft has already invested over $10 million in providing Indian entrepreneurs with access to Azure.
“By offeing our cloud services through local datacenters, we can help make Digital India a reality”, said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India. “This opens new possibilites in e-governance, financail inclusion, healthcare and education, and will help us positively impact the lives of a billion people.”
