Recent News

Telephone billing giant Amdoc has announced a new solution called Amdocs Cloud-Fusion in collaboration with Microsoft. The solution enables service providers to provide connectivity and more secure cloud applications for enterprise and small-and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Bob De Haven, General Manager, Worldwide Communications & Media, Microsoft, said, “Service providers will be able to capture new revenue streams from their business segment customer base by adding cloud services and providing access to Microsoft Azure’s value-added business services and Azure Marketplace’s solutions through secure service provider networks.”

ELECOM CO. LTD. and Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC announced that they will be partnering on a range of business solutions for customers including network attached storage (NAS) and tablets. Nick Psyhogeos, President, Microsoft Technology Licensing, said, “We’re pleased to announce a new patent collaboration with ELECOM that will ultimately deliver more innovative technologies to customers. This partnership is an example of how the mutually respectful and beneficial exchange of technology can empower businesses and consumers to achieve more.”

iBall recently launched the CompBook Excelance and the CompBook Exemplaire laptops in partnership with Microsoft. Priced at Rs 9,999, the CompBook Excelance is the cheapest Windows 10 laptop in India. It has an 11-inch IPS antiglare display with a tactile chiclet keyboard. The display has great viewing angles too. Although the laptop’s made out of plastic, it still feels sturdy. It is also light weight and highly portable. Both laptops come with 32GB of in-built space of which a good amount is taken by Windows 10.

Microsoft has moved on to the next phase of shutdown of its standalone Sunrise calendar app. The app was acquired by Microsoft last year and the team now has moved on to work on Outlook for iOS and android. The entire team is working with Outlook and will not support or update Sunrise. The app will be removed from stores in a few days and on August 31, it will be shut down.

Microsoft’s video and chat app Skype will now let Indian users buy Skype credits using Indian cards and net banking. Previously, Indian users could do this only with international credit cards; they can now use the Indian currency to pay for the service, instead of US Dollars. Skype has partnered with Indian Internet and IT firm Sify to make this come true.

The advent of ‘Internet of Things’ has not only changed the role of IT in business but also allowed companies to access large amounts of data and enabled smarter business operations and smarter decisions. Microsoft in association with The Economic Times will soon hold the Internet of Things Summit 2016. This one-day conference led by industry stalwarts will have world class speakers and panelists dissect the true nature of Internet of Things, its impact, expected trends and challenges in the industry.

Microsoft told the United Nations that technology companies can do more to combat digital terror, but warned there was no single solution to prevent terrorists from using the web. Microsoft’s Vice President Steven Crown, told a special Security Council debate on counter-terrorism, that “There is no silver bullet that will stop terrorist use of the Internet. Microsoft and other ICT companies are taking part in a new initiative under the UN’s counter-terrorism committee to agree on ways to address the threats. Microsoft services and Microsoft the company are different from Google, which is different from Facebook, which is different from Twitter.”

Jason Mackay, General Manager of COMPAREX Canada, is thrilled with Microsoft’s recent announcement of new datacenters’ general availability across Canada. The launch of these datacenters enables more Canadian organizations to capitalize on the local accessibility and security of the Microsoft Cloud, as well as cloud-based solutions like Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online. COMPAREX offers Unified Cloud Management for Azure and for Office 365, two programs that focus on the management and optimization of an organization’s cloud usage and investment. Proprietary reporting tools allow IT teams to streamline the management of identities, storage, backup, and growth in the cloud.

The OVH Partners Program gets enriched. The European cloud leader has joined a circle of Microsoft partners able to distribute the Microsoft Office 365 desktop software suite to its own resellers. This is an opportunity without precedence for them to exploit the massive adoption of SaaS collaborative work solutions. Aziz Benmalek, Vice President, Worldwide Hosting and Cloud Services, Microsoft, said, “We’re excited to work with OVH to enable even more partners to take advantage of new opportunities for growth with Office 365 and help drive their businesses forward.”

Cazena announced Big Data as a Service offering data marts and data lakes on Microsoft Azure. Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist, Developer Experience, Microsoft Corporation, said, “Cazena will help accelerate customers’ ability to migrate big data workloads to Microsoft Azure. The combination of trusted infrastructure and price-performance leadership of Azure, with Cazena’s service, will help simplify big data processing for organizations looking to utilize the cloud.”