Microsoft Windows Azure and Office 365 headed for China, thanks to 21Vianet

Here is a wee bit of news that folks in China, the world’s most populous country, would find interesting if they happen to be users of Microsoft products, especially Microsoft Windows Azure and Office 365. It seems that Microsoft’s cloud service is headed in that direction without any of the torrential rains associated with it, although the Chinese offerings will be under the supervision of 21Vianet, a data center services company that is based in China. Microsoft took the route of licensing their technology instead of serving it up themselves, meaning the service will be subject to Chinese law instead of U.S. law.

According to a Forrester research, the “public cloud market in China will grow from $297 million in 2011 to $3.8 billion in 2020.” This is definitely another way for Microsoft to grow their revenue, especially after seeing the success of Amazon Web Services that currently is tipped to run approximately one percent of the Internet. Google and the rest of the crowd are trying to play catch up here, and Microsoft does not want to lose out on the rather lucrative pie.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Microsoft, office 365