Microsoft to offer commercial cloud services in India

 Satya Nadella,
CEO,
Microsoft

During his first visit to India after becoming CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella has announced that, by the end of 2015, Microsoft will offer commercial cloud services – Azure and Office 365, from local data centers.

The Cloud services from Microsoft are expected to accelerate public and hybrid cloud adoption significantly in the country with organizations benefiting from data sovereignty, lower latency and geo redundancy with the availability of local infrastructure.

Commenting on the offering, Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, said, “With more than 250 million Indians using Internet-connected devices today, there is incredible demand and opportunity for India with Microsoft’s cloud services. Microsoft is deeply committed to helping people and organizations thrive in our mobile-first and cloud-first world – that is why we are proud to offer our commercial cloud services through data centers in India.”

He also assured that this will open new possibilities in e-governance, financial inclusion, healthcare and education, and will help Microsoft positively impact the lives of over a billion people. In an exclusive Question-and-Answer session with VARINDIA, discussing on establishing dedicated data centers in India, Satya replied, "Microsoft’s cloud services has grown over 100 per cent in revenue in the past year, and the commitment to offer locally hosted Microsoft Azure and Office 365 will further accelerate this. Microsoft’s locally available cloud services will open opportunities for banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies, state-owned enterprises and government departments to adopt the public cloud."

"By offering our cloud services through local data centers, we can help make Digital India a reality. This opens new possibilities in e-governance, financial inclusion, healthcare and education," said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India.

The services offered by Microsoft via the local data centers will create new avenues for its India’s 10,000+ partner ecosystems, comprised of independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs) and others.

With Microsoft’s local data centers, Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) can benefit significantly from adopting public or hybrid cloud offerings. To enable these and other businesses to benefit from its cloud offerings, Microsoft has announced a new Cloud Accelerator Program to support customers at different stages of adoption.