Microsoft to offer cloud services from Indian datacenters in 2015

Microsoft is planning to offer its cloud services - Azure and Office 365 – in India from local datacenters by the end of 2015, the company has said.

The offering is expected to accelerate public and hybrid cloud adoption significantly in India.

"Microsoft is committed to helping people and organizations thrive in our mobile-first and cloud-first world - that's why we are proud to offer our cloud services through datacenters in India," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. 

"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's cloud services in India have grown revenues by more than 100% 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, said Microsoft.

"By offering our cloud services through local datacenters, we can help make Digital India a reality," said Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman of Microsoft India. 

"This opens new possibilities in e-governance, financial inclusion, healthcare and education, and will help us positively impact the lives of a billion people."

Enterprises such as Bajaj Finance and Fortis Hospitals are already using Microsoft's cloud technologies.

"The breadth of Microsoft Cloud solutions - from on-premise private cloud to public and hybrid clouds - makes a comprehensive offering for financial services customers," said Rakesh Bhatt, COO of Bajaj Finance.

Varun Sood, CIO at of Fortis Healthcare, said the organization has benefited from moving systems and applications to their cloud services.

To enable SMBs and large enterprises in India from its cloud offerings, Microsoft has also announced a program to support customers at different stages of adoption.

Over the last few years, Microsoft India has continued to enable its partners with cloud capabilities so it can better address the market. Several Microsoft partners, including System Integrators (SIs), like HCL Infosystems, TCS and Wipro, and ISVs, such as MartJack, Newgen Software Technologies and Nucleus Software, have built or intend to build cloud offering with Microsoft Azure and Office 365.

"The datacenter market in India is seeing huge growth powered by increased digitization and use of mobility for both business and leisure. We have partnered with Microsoft to help businesses adopt cloud as a part of their IT strategy and realize benefits of cloud. It has been a very successful initiative," said TK Kurien, CEO at Wipro.

"TCS and Microsoft are uniquely positioned to jointly address the cloud adoption requirements of Indian businesses, educational institutions and government," said N Chandrasekaran, CEO at Tata Consultancy Services.