Microsoft will develop and market cloud-computing products in China
with a Chinese partner, a pattern that the software giant could use
as a model in other emerging markets, an executive said on Tuesday.
In a joint event in Beijing, Microsoft Corp. and China's domestic
Linux operating system provider, China Standard Software Co. Ltd.
(CS2C), signed an agreement to jointly develop, market and sell
solutions for the booming cloud-computing market in China.
The two companies did not disclose financial terms of their
arrangement.
Microsoft said that the primary goal of the agreement is to provide
public and private cloud solutions to a diverse array of industries
through a rich partner ecosystem. The mixed source solutions
stemming from this collaboration will be built on Microsoft's
Hyper-V Open Cloud architecture and will include support to run CS2C
NeoKylin Linux Server products. While establishing market and
technology collaboration, the two companies have also signed a
mutually beneficial customer legal covenant agreement.
Microsoft and CS2C have also pledged to sponsor a joint virtual
technology lab in Beijing for solution development and testing of
cloud solutions that will allow their customers to move to
virtualization and a cloud-based IT infrastructure. The lab will
focus on the certification of CS2C NeoKylin Operating System on
Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, creating Microsoft Systems
Center management packs for CS2C NeoKylin Operating System
application workloads, and incorporating support for CS2C NeoKylin
Operating System within the Hyper-V Cloud architecture.
As part of the collaboration, CS2C will also take part in the
Interop Vendor Alliance, an established community of software and
hardware vendors that have been working together to enhance
interoperability with Microsoft systems.