SHANGHAI, China, May 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 21Vianet Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:VNET) ("21Vianet"), the largest carrier-neutral Internet data center services provider in China, announced today the official public preview of Microsoft Corporation's (Nasdaq:MSFT) ("Microsoft"), Windows Azure, in China.
At a ceremony held today at the China Pavilion located at the World Expo site in Shanghai, 21Vianet, in partnership with Microsoft, announced the public preview of Windows Azure service in China, will be available on June 6, 2013. The event was attended by many respected technology executives and government officials including: US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke; Shanghai Pudong New Area District Mayor, Jiang Liang; Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer; 21Vianet CEO, Josh Chen. In addition, early adopters, who are
working closely with 21Vianet and Microsoft to develop applications on the platform, such as Kingdee, Qoros, RenRen, and PPTV, are already preparing to take advantage of the benefits of reliability, flexibility and value available through Windows Azure.
Mr. Josh Chen, Chairman and CEO of 21Vianet stated: "We are extremely excited to officially launch Microsoft Windows Azure services in China and believe 21Vianet will provide great contributions to the growth of cloud infrastructure and services throughout China. Our cooperation further enhances 21Vianet's capabilities in helping to develop China's cloud infrastructure services and strengthening our core competency for customers, ensuring seamless integration of public cloud software development, datacenter and network operation, maintenance, customer support and service delivery quality. As a cloud enabler, 21Vianet is pleased to offer Microsoft's
world-class cloud services for the first time to businesses in China. By providing carrier-level services for better public cloud operations, including security and compliance, datacenter and network operations, maintenance and customer services related to cloud operations, 21Vianet and Microsoft are committed to offering the best cloud services available throughout China."
Ralph Haupter, corporate vice president and CEO for Microsoft Greater China, said: "In China, we are committed as a company to partnering to drive innovation, competitiveness and opportunity, and I believe this collaborative approach is why we are the first multinational in the world to bring public cloud services to China. With Microsoft's experience running more than 200 cloud services for more than a billion customers worldwide, we expect it to be the best in China as well, and we are really excited to unleash the power of Windows Azure in this market."
In November 2012, Microsoft, 21Vianet and the Shanghai Municipal Government, announced a strategic partnership agreement in which Microsoft will provide Windows Azure and Office 365 technology to 21Vianet to fully operate throughout China. Globally, Windows Azure is available for purchase in 89 countries in 40 local currencies and offers customers disaster recovery, data sovereignty and improved local performance through three major regions and eight sub-regions that are located around the globe. IDC forecasts that cloud computing market in Asia will grow from US$3 Billion in 2012 to over US$19 billion by 2016. For the first time ever, this premier cloud computing platform, offers
China-based customers the highest level of security, reliability, scalability and flexibility in application development and deployment, allowing customers to focus on the business of building great applications and supporting customers' evolving and growing IT infrastructure growth needs.
Partners/Customers who adopt the 21Vianet operated Windows Azure platform derive the following benefits:
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Reliability: The experience gained from running some of the largest online services in the world enables Microsoft to build into Windows Azure enterprise-class reliability and security. Backed by many industry certifications and attestations, Windows Azure provides strong SLA support. It also provides 7*24*365 online support and trusted consulting services.
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Flexibility: Windows Azure is the only public cloud that offers fully supported Infrastructure Services and Platform Services and supports hybrid scenarios. Windows Azure supports Windows and Linux virtual machines, SQL Server and Hadoop. Developers working in .NET, Java, PHP, Node.js, and Python can use the freely available SDKs for those languages to get started quickly and take full advantage of Windows Azure services.
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Value: Windows Azure enables customers to quickly build, deploy, scale and manage applications. With Infrastructure Services organizations to easily migrate to the public cloud. In addition, Windows Azure allows organizations to control costs and stay competitive with multiple flexible offerings like prepay and corporate purchase.
About 21Vianet
21Vianet Group, Inc. is the largest carrier-neutral internet data center services provider in China. 21Vianet provides hosting and related services, managed network services, cloud infrastructure services, and content delivery network services, improving the reliability, security and speed of its customers' internet infrastructure. Customers may locate their servers and networking equipment in 21Vianet's data centers and connect to China's internet backbone through 21Vianet's extensive fiber optic network. In addition, 21Vianet's proprietary smart routing technology enables customers' data to be delivered across the internet in a faster and more reliable manner. 21Vianet operates in 43 cities throughout China, servicing a diversified and loyal base of more than 2,000 customers that span many industries ranging from internet companies to government entities and blue-chip enterprises to small- to mid-sized enterprises.
http://www.en.21vianet.com/
CONTACT: Media Relations Contact:
ICR, Inc.
Matthew Lindberg, ICR, Inc.
+1 (203) 682-8214
mlindberg@icrinc.com
Investor Relations Contact:
21Vianet Group, Inc.
Joseph Cheng
+86 10 8456 2121
IR@21Vianet.com
ICR, Inc.
Jeremy Peruski
+1 (646) 405-4922
IR@21Vianet.com
Source:
21Vianet Group, Inc.
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