It is a well-known fact that cloud computing services now power some of the world’s biggest companies, and over the years, the importance of cloud service companies is only going to rise exponentially. In that regard, Microsoft has come up by leaps and bounds with its cloud service known as Azure and has been able to sign up plenty of big-ticket clients. It is currently one of the most important businesses for the tech giant and in new development; it signed a 10 year deal with Reliance Jio, India’s biggest telecommunication company. The announcement of the deal was made at Reliance Industries Limited’s 42 Annual General Meeting that took place on Monday.
It is interesting to note that Microsoft Azure is not only going to supply the Indian telecom giant with merely cloud services. But also collaborate with the company to create new products. Jio and Azure are expected to work on a solution that spans a wide range of products like storage, connectivity, computing, and other services that might prove to be helpful for Indian companies. In addition to that, it has been reported that Microsoft is also going to collaborate with Reliance Jio so that thrust is made towards data analytics, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, stated that it is an excellent opportunity for the tech giant. He said,
We have an incredible opportunity to apply advances in technology to help organizations across India innovate and grow. The combination of Jio’s leading connectivity and digital solutions with Azure, Azure AI and Office 365 will bring powerful tools and platforms for compute, storage, productivity and more to millions of businesses in the country.
The exact financial details of the deal have not yet been revealed, but the companies are going to collaborate for 10 years initially. That being said, it goes without saying that it is an outstanding opportunity for Reliance and Microsoft. Such a deal could also pave the opportunity for Microsoft to sign similar deals with other Indian companies.
