Microsoft India today announced commercial availability of the
Windows Azure Platform, an internet-scale cloud services platform
hosted on Microsoft’s data centres.
More than 50 partners including HCL Technologies, Wings Info,
Cerebrate and CDC Software are developing commercial applications
and solutions on Windows Azure platform. WingsInfo has developed a
SaaS based accounting package and SCM solution for SMBs, while CDC
Software has developed a complaint management and enterprise
feedback system. Similarly, HCL Technologies has developed a
management application developed on Windows Azure to help customers
manage data on the cloud. Customers have access to over three
thousand applications on the Azure platform.
Over the past two years, Microsoft has already launched several
products and solutions in India across other layers as part of its
cloud strategy for enterprises. These include hosted Dynamics,
Office Web Apps, Microsoft Online Services (comprising Exchange
Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Office
Live meeting), Windows Server, SystemCentre and the Dynamic Data
Centre Toolkit
“This completes our cloud stack,” said Rajan
Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft India. “All of our
popular products are already cloud-ready, and we have a clear
future roadmap to provide anytime, anywhere access across diverse
devices spanning computer, mobile and the Internet”
Cost efficiencies are being seen as one of the key benefits of the
cloud computing paradigm. "SMBs in India are looking for low cost
solutions without the hassle of running an in-house infrastructure.
Windows Azure is not only a reliable and scalable platform for
customers to access online services, but also enables us to create
feature-rich applications for different devices and a large set of
users without worrying about IT infrastructure," said Ajay Gandhi,
MD Wings Infonet. Microsoft’s estimates reveal that with the
Windows Azure Platform, customers and partners can realize a
reduction in Total Cost of Operations of key workloads by up to 30
to 40 percent over a three year period.
“The ease of application development including the advantage
of interoperability with other platforms and programming languages
gives us a plethora of opportunities to deploy applications for a
large user set. Further, the customers are able to
store the data on Azure and manage it with ease and convenience
that in turn significantly reduces IT costs for them. We see
immense potential for Azure and cloud based services among Indian
enterprises in the coming months,” said Gaurav Mantri,
Founder CEO of Cerebrate Software.
"The security and reliability offered by Windows Azure is expected
to attract a large customer base on the cloud which we
believe should increase the adoption of the services model for
critical sectors such as banking and government," said Nagaraja
Prakasam, Managing Director, South and Southeast Asia, CDC
Software.
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