Microsoft Azure garners support from industry
The tech industry is increasingly supporting Microsoft’s Cloud computing platform, Azure.
Enterprise virtualisation company, Odin, has announced its support of Azure services automation offered through the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
Announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, service providers will now be able to offer Azure services through the CSP program. Partners can manage the lifecycle of their own customers with direct provisioning, billing and 24/7 support of Microsoft Cloud services.
In addition, when combined with Windows Azure Pack services, they can deliver a hybrid Cloud offering based on Azure technologies.
Odin alliances vice-president, Alex Danyluk, said the Microsoft CSP program opens up new opportunities for service providers as those that work with Odin have been able to future-proof their Microsoft investments by having access Azure through the Odin Service Automation platform.
“Odin’s solutions empower partners to more quickly adopt CSP and begin to create differentiated offers for our mutual customers, while helping them on their Cloud journey,” Microsoft worldwide partner group corporate vice-president, Phil Sorgen, added.
One of Odin’s Australian partners, OzHosting.com, is already on-board with the program.
“Our key focus has always been to humanize IT and stick by our mantra of ‘Cloud Made Easy’. The Odin Service Automation platform has enabled us to deliver on this mantra. We can now easily package additional services such as the Azure suite to our successful Office 365 offerings,” OzHosting.com CEO, Anthony Banek, said.
In addition, datacentre vendor, Equinix, recently announced that the company has experienced tremendous growth in the number of enterprise customers accessing Azure in its International Business Exchange (IBX) datacenters worldwide.
Recent Equinix customers taking advantage of private access to Azure include GE, HarperCollins, Hitachi Data Systems, and Red Lobster, among others.
According to the company, as one of the first datacentre providers to deliver direct access to Microsoft's Cloud services on a global scale, it has enabled enterprise customers to speed hybrid- and multi-Cloud deployments by directly connecting to Azure in Equinix datacentres across five continents including North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia.
It claimed in the past year, availability of this direct access offering has expanded to 16 markets, and Equinix has facilitated hundreds of connections to Azure via Platform Equinix, specifically Equinix Cloud Exchange.
Equinix Cloud innovation vice-president, Chris Sharp, said by providing direct access to Azure via ExpressRoute inside Equinix datacentres, it is enabling companies to bridge their Cloud and datacentre strategies and realise the benefits of hybrid and multi-Cloud.
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"Since we began offering the Microsoft solution just over a year ago, we have witnessed significant growth in connections and companies increasingly benefit from the scale, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the Cloud—all without the complexities associated with traditional network connections," he said.
Equinix is also working closely with service provider channel partners including Datapipe, Unitas Global and ScienceLogic to develop custom solutions that further help enterprises create hybrid Clouds, maximizing the public Cloud through Azure and ExpressRoute, paired with on-premise infrastructure and services inside Equinix.
Managed Cloud company, Rackspace, has also announced support for Microsoft Azure. The company has expanded its service offering for its Microsoft product portfolio with Fanatical Support for Microsoft Azure.
Rackspace will work with customers to help them speed their deployment of Azure, minimise costs and optimise performance. It also aims to provide application and infrastructure architecture guidance and offer hybrid Cloud solutions that combine Rackspace Private Cloud powered by Microsoft’s Cloud Platform and Azure.
According to Rackspace, its customers will be able to take advantage of Fanatical Support for Azure in two ways:
- Customers can purchase Azure infrastructure and support (including architectural and on-boarding guidance) as a bundle from Rackspace.
- Customers who already use Azure infrastructure and want support and management expertise can get Rackspace managed services for their infrastructure as a separate cost based on their infrastructure spend.
“By adding support for Azure to our portfolio, we can now serve customers who want public, private and hybrid Cloud environments built on the Microsoft Azure Stack,” Rackspace CEO, Taylor Rhodes, mentioned.
This offering is available for US customers for now but will expand to international customers, including A/NZ, through early 2016.
