Microsoft, with the objective of accelerating digital transformation across every industry and organization, announced the launch of Azure Stack for India, to speed-up cloud adoption in the country.
At company’s Hyderabad campus, Anant Maheshwari – President, Microsoft India, gave a brief of Microsoft’s Indian journey and its zest to give more to the people by extending its intelligent cloud services into the country.
He said, “We are fueling innovation and accelerating India’s digital transformation with our global and local cloud services. As many mobile-only and cloud-only collaboration and productivity scenarios emerge in the workplace, we are working with our customers and partners to accelerate movement to the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge in the next year, and to help build new engines of growth. Microsoft and our partners are helping customers who want to utilize the full power of our cloud platform and use Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cognitive Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT).”
Talking about the launch of Azure Stack in India, he said that Indian customers prefer moving to a hybrid environment first instead of going completely public. Hence, with Azure Stack, the companies will be able to move towards digital transformation at their own pace.
Microsoft, which claims to be the only cloud company offering all the three clouds – Public, Private and Hybrid, says that the addition of Azure Stack will bring faster and agile innovation across Indian companies.
Per Microsoft, 70 of the top 100 BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) companies use its cloud.
Microsoft started its Indian operations in 1990 and since then has been a preferred cloud provider for many Indian companies and government.
Financial Services and Information Technology have been the top adopters of Microsoft Cloud. Not only cloud, but the companies have been leveraging Microsoft’s advanced solutions built around AI, Cognitive Services, IoT, Analytics, Power BI and Big Data, as well.
In financial sector, 10 of the 12 largest banks in the country use Microsoft Cloud Solutions that include names like SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, BOD, IndusInd Bank and others.
Even the auto-manufacturing sector with leading entities like Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp etc. are on Microsoft Cloud, per the company’s official news release.
One of the largest opportunities lies in Indian Startup which are fueled by Microsoft Cloud Solutions. Reportedly, Microsoft supports 5K Indian Startups yearly through various programs and works with over 200,000 large, medium and small enterprises. Not to mention, the rich partner ecosystem with over 9000 partners in India who drive digital transformation through cloud in India.
Azure Stack is an extension of Microsoft’s Intelligent cloud platform, which enables hybrid cloud capabilities in the on-premises environment. Microsoft’s leading Azure Stack Partners like HP, Dell, EMC, Cisco and Lenovo have already started shipping Azure Stack to the Indian customers.
Out of Microsoft’s 42 global datacenters, 3 are located in India at Pune, Mumbai and Chennai regions. Microsoft was the first global cloud provider to offer its cloud services in India and to be recognized as the certified cloud provider for government by Ministry of Information Technology.
This announcement will intensify the cloud race between Microsoft, AWS and Google.
