Microsoft to offer Office apps on cloud from India
NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corp will launch its popular Office suite of productivity software that includes popular applications such as MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the Indian market as a “cloud service”— something that you can rent over the Internet from Indian data centres late next year to address a potential $ 2trillion (`1,20,00,000 crore) market, its CEO Satya Nadella said on Tuesday.
Microsoft will also offer its Azure software to developers in the same fashion, partnering local systems integration and IT service companies, Hyderabadborn Nadella said on the second day of his three-day Indian visit.
“World class cloud infrastructure is going to help Indian companies, government and entrepreneurs,” the 46-year-old Nadella told reporters. “This is a major step for us.”
Microsoft has already been doing this for Indian customers, but local data centres will enable it to use local infrastructure and probably, also market the serv- ices better. Nadella has been pitching hard for a “mobile first, cloud first” strategy, aiming to rent out its software apps over hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
Microsoft’s software became popular during the 1980s and 1990s when its applications, packaged with its near-monopoly in the DOS and Windows operating system software, ruled the desktop era. It is now building on that advantage, offering the same applications over the Net or broadband links.
But it has competitors including Google, which is offering free apps that match Microsoft apps in basics, and nimble new players such as Zoho. Nadella expects, however, that the traditional advantage that Microsoft has thanks to the familiarity of its software and its old partners like systems integration companies, will sustain its magic.
“We have no issues in competing, “Nadella said. “Any technology company has to be innovative. I am pretty confident we can compete vigorously….We have the broadest ecosystem of partners.”