This is probably the first offer of its kind in the IT World and that too, coming from Microsoft, it is a huge surprise. The Indian small and medium enterprises now have a chance to trade in their computer hardware in exchange for Microsoft Azure cloud platform usage credits. So where is the catch? The catch is that a small or medium business must trade in at least 250 or more computers to be eligible for Azure credits. The scheme was announced by Microsoft on 21st March and shall be valid up to 30 June 2014, exclusively for Indian SMEs.
Small and medium businesses account for a huge portion of the Indian economy and Microsoft India’s Karan Bajwa acknowledged as much, saying that they need flexible and scalable computing platforms to reduce their costs and drive up productivity. According to him, Microsoft’s offer is a wonderful opportunity and gives small and medium enterprises full value in transitioning to the cloud environment on the Azure platform. In order to get started an enterprise owner may call Microsoft’s number 1800 3070 4660 or log in to http://www.microsoft.com/india/movetoazure. Once they do, an accredited hardware recycle partner of Microsoft will check the hardware of the client and give a valuation that is converted into Azure credits that can be applied to Microsoft’s cloud computing services. Just-Dispose is Microsoft’s authorized hardware recycle partner in Mumbai and they will evaluate hardware, collect it, provide a document for the transaction stating the value a business owner can use when transitioning to Azure.
Microsoft’s Azure operates out of data centers spread all over the world and lets users develop, build and deploy applications on the cloud platform. Azure is growing fast, at a rate of over 200% but in India, cloud computing is yet to gain momentum. Still, according to Microsoft, Azure is gaining in popularity with about 2000 customers added each month. The current offer should incentivize a large majority of the over 50 million small and medium enterprises to make the switch to cloud. Microsft has a strength of 10000 partners in over 250 cities across India ready to serve new customers. Whether the trade in offer is incentive enough or not will be seen in the coming month. The catch is that an enterprise must have at least 250 PCs to quality for the offer and that leaves a large number out of the reckoning.
