São Paulo,
December
4
,
2013 – Microsoft announced today it is investing in the development of a new Windows Azure region in Brazil, which represents an important step forward in the company’s cloud expansion strategy and its commitment to the country and Latin America. Worldwide, Microsoft has invested more than US $1 billion in Azure, which is currently available in 89 countries. As of the first half of 2014, companies throughout Brazil and Latin America will be able to reap the benefits offered by Azure, including local data and application storage, as well as greater agility and efficiency for customers and partners.
“This investment reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to Brazil during this period of transformation as a devices and services company. Our corporate strategy is differentiated, as we are the only company offering all public and private cloud models, enabling customers to reduce costs and innovate at a faster pace,” said Mariano de Beer, president of Microsoft Brazil, who noted that the Windows Azure business unit in Brazil is growing quickly, at almost twice the market rate. “Brazil is one of Microsoft’s 10 most important global markets, and we are committed to making technology a fundamental driving force for business growth in the country,” he added.
According to Steven Martin, general manager of Windows Azure at Microsoft Corporation, the Windows Azure Brazil South Region will provide better performance for local companies through reduced latency. Additionally, customers will be able to opt for Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), which will maintain three copies of their data in Brazil, preserving data residency. “It’s an exciting time to expand into Brazil, and today’s announcement represents our continued commitment to meet our local customers’ expectations.”
Windows Azure, which has been in the market in Brazil since 2010 for businesses of all sizes, start-ups, and developers, offers cloud computing power with solutions that provide scalability and security. “The portfolio of Windows Azure services continues to expand and improve to better support the growing demand for cloud solutions in the market,” said André Echeverria, director of the Servers Division at Microsoft Brazil.
Customers Choose Windows Azure
Microsoft continuously strives to simplify the process to help businesses move to the cloud and help customers choose the cloud model that best suits their needs.
The credit information firm, Boa Vista Serviços is one of the many companies that has benefited from using Windows Azure in Brazil. In search of a platform that guaranteed greater flexibility to support peak access times, Boa Vista selected Windows Azure in June 2013. The company has two Microsoft platform applications: the Positive Consumer site, which allows users to consult online information related to their credit, as well as a Windows 8 app version of the site. Additionally, the e-commerce anti-fraud service offered by Boa Vista is also hosted on Azure. “Microsoft helped us migrate our infrastructure to the cloud based on our needs. We can enjoy the benefits of cloud computing services through a hybrid model which ensures with complete confidence the security for our information, plus the agility and scalability that only the cloud can facilitate,” said Waldir di Santis, IT Director at Boa Vista Serviços.
Companies of all sizes are using and benefiting from Windows Azure in Latin America, including, Teletica in Costa Rica, Saberes in Colombia, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Windows Azure is extremely reliable and flexible. The vast experience gained by implementing some of the world’s most important online services has enabled the company to develop a reliable platform for the corporate market. This product is the only public cloud to offer and provide full support for all Infrastructure Services and Platform Services, not to mention that it is compatible with hybrid environments. With Infrastructure Services, organizations can now easily migrate to the public cloud and also control their costs to remain competitive with the pre-payment and purchase options.
Windows Azure is also compatible with virtual devices (Windows and Linux, SQL Server and Hadoop) and on open-source structures such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Developers who work with.NET, Java, PHP, Node.js and Python can use the SDK available free of charge here.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ «MSFT») is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Press Contact
Estefania Rodriguez
Porter Novelli for Microsoft Latin America
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Press Center at http://www.microsoft.com/es-xl/news/. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed.
