Back in November 2012 21Vianet and Microsoft got together to introduce Azure platform as a service and infrastructure as a service products to China. Microsoft tied up with 21Vianet, a China based company that claims to be the largest data center service provider in that country. A joint communique announced that the services will go live as of 6th June 2013 in China. Present at the launch were Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and GaryLocke, US Ambassador to China.
What makes 21Vianet the ideal partner for Microsoft Azure services is that it owns 81 data centers in 42 cities across China and is perfectly placed to service thousands of small and large enterprises across the country. Microsoft has stolen a march over rivals Amazon and Google who have no presence at all in China by way of cloud computing services. Amazon has its data center in Singapore and serves a miniscule Chinese market though it leads elsewhere. Microsoft’s Azure has an enviable revenue generation of $ 1 billion per annum and counting. Besides China, Microsoft is targeting Australia as well as a promising area for Azure coverage. As far as China is concerned, the going may not be all that smooth given the concerns about security and hacking as well as China’s laws on government intervention. We cannot forget in a hurry that Google pulled search out of China in 2010 in the wake of government hacker attacks on its users.
