(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a new worldwide cloud computing partnership, Fujitsu (www.fujitsu.com) and Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) have enabled Fujitsu to deploy the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu data centers.
According to the Monday announcement made at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC, the new partnership is Microsoft’s latest investment in transforming the face of cloud computing. In turn, it the Windows Azure platform appliance will enhance Fujitsu’s cloud portfolio by supporting three modes of cloud consumption: infrastructure as a service, applications as a service and activity as a service. Representing a significant shift in the way the IT industry creates value, according to Fujitsu, activity as a service lets customers subscribe to services specified in business terms, rather than technology.
“We believe the introduction of the Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important industry milestone in the transformation to cloud computing,” Microsoft server and tools division president Bob Muglia said in a statement. “By extending the power of our cloud platform to customer and service provider data centers like Fujitsu, we are paving the way for more customers to fully realize the business benefits of the cloud.”
The expanded partnership between Fujitsu and Microsoft is designed to enable customers to easily address new business scenarios that demand predictable and immediately consumable services, as well as rapid application scaling. Fujitsu will deliver a comprehensive set of new cloud services and solutions, including system integration, cloud migration and managed services, to customers and independent software vendors. Fujitsu will also run its own applications on the Windows Azure platform appliance.
“Fujitsu has a vision of a prosperous, human-centric, intelligent, networked society, and this strategic global partnership with Microsoft is a major step forward in being able to realize this,” Fujitsu ICT services corporate senior executive vice president Kazuo Ishida stated. “Through this alliance, we are providing our customers with a new array of possibilities in cloud computing. Our partnership with Microsoft truly reflects Fujitsu’s cloud strategy and will no doubt break new ground in contributing to the creation of an IT-networked society.”
Microsoft also announced at WPC, the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run their own data centers. The appliance lets customers and initial partners (including Fujitsu, as well as Dell, and Hewlett-Packard) use the appliance in their own data centers, giving them the scale-out application platform and data center efficiency offered by Windows Azure and SQL Azure.
The new Fujitsu cloud services and solutions based on the Windows Azure platform will be available first in Fujitsu’s data centers in Japan, starting at the Fujitsu Tatebayashi System Center by the end of 2010, to be followed by other locations around the world. In addition to the appliance, Fujitsu will be providing services on the Windows Azure platform to customers on a global basis.
In addition to deploying the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu’s data centers, the partnership also involves both companies combining their strengths to develop a Fujitsu-branded Windows Azure platform appliance that customers will be able to purchase and deploy in their own data centers using Fujitsu’s hardware technology.
Fujitsu said it will be training more than 5,000 consultants and developers to work with customers and ISVs to consult, develop and integrate new and existing applications on the Windows Azure platform. In addition, Fujitsu and Microsoft will develop sales and marketing activities to further promote the new cloud services.
In a Monday blog entry, Microsoft server and tools marketing corporate vice president Robert Wahbe explained what this partnership and others mean to businesses, providing some additional context regarding the company’s strategy of helping businesses embrace cloud computing.
The shift to cloud computing, Wahbe wrote, “can enable a company to quickly spin up IT for an entirely new business with little capital expense. A startup can deliver the next great social media application, without worrying about the hardware to support millions of users. An IT department can respond to the needs of business more quickly at a lower cost of operations. It is also a tremendous opportunity for Microsoft partners to prosper as they help their customers take advantage of the cloud.”
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