Jio and Microsoft have partnered to launch cloud data centres across India powered by the American IT giant's cloud platform, Azure.
Announcing the partnership, Reliance Industries Ltd chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said the partnership would ensure connectivity and will work with small and medium enterprises.
Ambani was speaking at the 42nd annual general meeting of Reliance Industries in Mumbai on August 12. Ambani said, Jio is also setting up a pan-India Edge Computing and Content Distribution network starting with tens of thousands of nodes.
Also read: Jio offers connectivity, cloud infra for budding startups absolutely free
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Jio network was the fastest growing in the world. “Together we will offer comprehensive technology from compute to store to connectivity and productivity for small and medium sized businesses everywhere in the country.”
“This partnership ensures that more of Jio’s customers can use tools and platforms they need to build their own digital capability,” he said.
Jio and Microsoft will jointly offer Office 365 so more organisations can empower their employees with their modern workplace. "We will bring Azure Cognitive Services to more create more break through in intelligent experiences with the support of major Indian languages," Nadella said.
Microsoft services are available in 13 Indian languages, with the flexibility to add more.
According to Nadella, the aim of the partnership is to make available all these solutions broadly accessible so that they can reach as many people and organisation as possible in India.
"I’m excited about our collective opportunity ahead," he added.
What would it mean for SMBs?
Talking about what this would mean for Indian businesses, Anant Maheswari, President, Microsoft India, said in blog, the access to Microsoft tools will help small and medium businesses (SMB) in the country to compete more effectively in the market place.
"This collaboration will accelerate innovation to create more affordable offerings for Indian SMBs and startups, including a new range of solutions for one-stop IT capabilities and allowing front-end applications on mobile devices, desktops and other tools," he added in the blog.
Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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