Microsoft launches Azure Stack for India

To further hasten Indian customers` move to the Cloud, Microsoft on Wednesday launched Azure Stack for India which is an extension of the company`s Azure Cloud platform.

The tech giant said that 70 of the top 100 Bombay Stock Exchange listed companies are now using Microsoft Cloud to drive their digital transformation.

Microsoft works with over 200,000 large, medium and small enterprises, 29 state governments and over 5,000 start-ups in the country. 

"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 edge in the next year and to help build new engines of growth," Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, told reporters here. 

Microsoft said that Azure Stack brings the agility and fast-paced innovation of Cloud computing to on-premises environments and enables entirely new hybrid Cloud scenarios. 

All the major Azure Stack partners HP, Dell, EMC, Lenovo and Cisco, have started shipping Azure Stack to customers in India. A large Azure Stack ready partner ecosystem has been created with partners such as Netmagic, Embee and G7CR.

"Microsoft and our partners are helping customers who want to utilise the full power of our Cloud platform and use Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, Cognitive Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT)," Maheshwari added.

Microsoft has three of its 42 global data centres in India at Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. Operating since September 2015, Microsoft was also the first public cloud service provider to be empanelled by the Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY) in late 2016.

Financial Services and Information Technology have emerged as the top Microsoft Cloud adopters followed by the manufacturing industry and start-ups in the last year. 

In the financial services sector, 10 of the 12 largest banks in India use Microsoft Cloud solutions (State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and others). 

In the auto manufacturing sector, the market leaders (Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and others) in all four sub-segments (passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three-wheelers and two-wheelers) are on Microsoft Cloud. 

Microsoft said it has also witnessed a significant uptake of its Cloud in the education sector in the country.

Microsoft has been a partner-led company for more than 40 years and generates over 95 per cent of its business through partner ecosystem. 

Today Microsoft India has more than 9,000 Cloud partners. Globally, Microsoft has 64,000 partners.