Microsoft has opened the doors of its first cloud computing services through its ‘hyper scale’ data centre in Chennai. Two more centres were opened in Pune and Mumbai.
Governments, large businesses, small and medium businesses (SMBs) and the public can use the massive computing power to support their existing workloads. In addition, businesses that deal with large amounts of data will benefit from facilities such as backup and recovery, reduced network distance, lower latency, and the option of a private connection to the cloud.
According to a statement from the Tamil Nadu government, after inaugurating the data centre through video conferencing, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told Karan Bajwa, MD, Microsoft India, that she was happy with the good work of the firm. She was quoted as saying, “We welcome you to the State and I assure you of the full support of the government .”
In August, Jayalalithaa had announced in the State Legislative Assembly that Cloud Computing Services and Web-Hosting Services will be provided at reduced costs to encourage entrepreneurial skills in youngsters. Later Microsoft (India) signed a MoU with the Department of Electronics at the Global Investors Meet 2015. Mandar Kulkarni, India - ýDirector for Cloud and Data Centre Programs at Microsoft, told The Hindu , “This centre will make a tremendous positive impact on the process of digitizing the state.” He further explained that companies are dependent on data centres located overseas to store and protect their data. Now they can do it within the country, he said.
The Tamil Nadu government will select 100 entrepreneurs and train them in Cloud Computing and Mobility technology. A senior government official who wished anonymity said the entrepreneurs will be chosen with the help of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI). “The cost of the training, which would be free, will be borne by the government.” The government will also train college students. This will be done by the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu. “This will help transform the education ecosystem and you can see more of digital learning,” the official said It is estimated that 10 lakh teachers and 60 lakh students across 1,500 institutes over the next 18 months will benefit from the local Microsoft Cloud in India.
