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Microsoft doubles down on its investment in Hong Kong to increase resilience and flexibility for businesses with addition of Azure Availability Zones in the second half of 2021
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Microsoft Empower Hong Kong Series to accelerate Hong Kong’s digital transformation and empower everyone from all walks of life
September 28 2020, Hong Kong –– Microsoft Hong Kong today hosted the Microsoft Envision Forum to support business growth in an era of unprecedented change and new opportunities. The new normal is here to stay and Microsoft Hong Kong has doubled down on its commitment to Hong Kong with the addition of a new Availability Zones to bolster businesses with greater resilience and flexibility. This continued investment by Microsoft empowers Hong Kong businesses to accelerate their digital transformation efforts as they navigate the recovery.
Accompanied with a series of “Microsoft Empower Hong Kong” activities, the company is set to upskill and reskill the city’s businesses, employees, partners, teachers, educators, and students, to drive an inclusive recovery.
The annual signature event was held virtually this year with the theme “Reimagine the New Normal” to empower over 3,000 customers and partners with insights that help local businesses and the community to thrive. Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, opened the event with a virtual fireside chat with Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau, on the company’s commitment and latest investment in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong is a very important community to us, and it is encouraging to see how Microsoft is empowering our customers and partners in Hong Kong to thrive in this increasingly digital world. I take great pride in how Microsoft has empowered small businesses to be more productive, to help large multinational companies maintain their competitive edge, and enable public institutions to improve efficiency,” said Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft.
Microsoft bolsters cloud infrastructure in Hong Kong in 2021
Ten years ago in 2010, Microsoft was the first to establish a major datacenter presence in Hong Kong with further investments in recent years to enhance cloud capabilities for local businesses. The addition of the Azure Availability Zones for Hong Kong in the second half of 2021, is another step in the company’s long-term datacenter investment in the city. Availability Zones provide additional options to improve resilience and high availability for organizations of all sizes that are increasingly reliant on cloud services to run their business. Microsoft’s Hong Kong cloud region has been available since 2010, and the company was the first to launch in the city, now empowering 90% of the Hang Seng Index companies with Microsoft Cloud.
The new Availability Zones will enhance the capability of Microsoft’s existing three datacenters in Hong Kong, delivering massive computing power to fuel local growth, spur innovation and accelerate digital transformation for businesses of all sizes. This latest commitment will ensure Hong Kong businesses can succeed with a highly available and resilient cloud infrastructure and services.
New Empower Hong Kong series to upskill and reskill Hong Kong
The Microsoft Envision Forum marks the first in a series of events under the new “Microsoft Empower Hong Kong” program to inspire and enable Hong Kong people from all walks of life.
“Digital upskilling and reskilling are driving this inclusive economic recovery in the new normal – a rapid digital transformation on an unprecedented scale,” said Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau. “As we enter our 30th year in Hong Kong next year, we are proud to have grown together with our customers, partners and community. New normal has served to demonstrate the importance of technology and how we can empower organizations and people across all industries. Today is the beginning of our ‘Microsoft Empower Hong Kong Series’ and we aim to inspire and motivate companies and individuals to embrace new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Cloud Computing. Only this reimagination will help us to rebound for a post-pandemic comeback.”
Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau announced the ‘Microsoft Empower Hong Kong Series’ aiming to inspire and motivate businesses and individuals to embrace new technologies and drive an inclusive recovery.
The Series will be held online and provide a boundaryless and accessible experience for the Hong Kong community:
- Microsoft Hong Kong Partner Forum on October 6 to showcase how Microsoft technology can support a variety of local industries with the right digital tools for a new way of working, including everything from Microsoft Teams to HoloLens 2.
- Microsoft Hong Kong Student Forum on October 7 to share the digital trends and the skills students will need to succeed as technology rapidly reshapes the future of work.
- Microsoft Hong Kong Education Forum in mid-November to equip educators on how technology can be used to make remote and hybrid learning more inclusive, engaging and safe for students.
- Reimagine your Industry Webinar Series with industry specific and role-based learning webinars for modern leaders will be running till August 2021, helping local talent to maintain a competitive edge and become future ready.
Technology as the enabler for the new normal
Microsoft and digital transformation leaders shared their insights to thrive in the new normal at the Forum. Efficiency and security are critically important as business embrace remote working, reduce costs, and rebound to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
At the Forum, SAP and Microsoft shared how their extended partnership accelerates customer transitions to SAP S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure to leverage the power of cloud more efficiently. “This partnership is about reducing complexity and minimizing costs for our customers as they move to SAP S/4 HANA,” said Fabian Padilla Crisol, Managing Director of SAP Hong Kong and Macau. “Bringing together the power of SAP and Microsoft provides our customers with industry-specific best practices, reference architectures, recommended services and streamlined support to confidently and efficiently transition into the new digital world.”
Fabian Padilla Crisol, Managing Director of SAP Hong Kong and Macau, shared the extended partnership with Microsoft and customer case studies for cloud and AI applications.
PwC demonstrated how an attack to an IT system can be circumvented by simply activating Microsoft’s cybersecurity solutions and introduced new approach to cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity demands fast decision making under pressure when there are a lot of unknowns. The facilitation of cyber simulation exercises, like Cyber Wargames, are invaluable for testing response strategies and undertaking scenario planning. At PwC we build cybersecurity resilience for organizations by combining the red team and blue team to find and fix security vulnerabilities as soon as they are identified. We call this Purple Teaming, and through the exercise, executives and technical teams learn to build resilience to mitigate the risks of new and emerging security threats,” said Kok-Tin Gan, Partner, Cyber Security & Privacy, PwC Hong Kong.
Kok-Tin Gan, Partner, Cyber Security & Privacy, PwC Hong Kong, demonstrated how an attack to an IT system can be circumvented by activating Microsoft’s cybersecurity solutions and introduced new approach to cybersecurity.
Microsoft aims to empower people with technology by helping them upskill to be future ready. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-hk/empowerhk for further information and stay up to date for upcoming events.
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About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
