Microsoft bullish on China’s cloud computing market

Microsoft Corp is ratcheting up efforts to tap into the Chinese cloud computing market, as the US tech giant is committed to helping both multinationals come to China and Chinese companies go global, a senior company executive said.

The comments came as Microsoft is teaming up with partners to showcase its latest intelligent healthcare solutions, a smart carbon management platform, and other cutting-edge technologies at the ongoing fourth China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

Joe Bao, president of Microsoft China, said in an interview with China Daily that Microsoft plans to bring a new data center online in China in the spring of 2022. Once the expansion is completed, the capacity of Microsoft”s cloud computing in China will have been boosted by 12 times since 2014.

“We are committed to being the best cloud provider in China both for multinationals as well as for local customers. We’re also looking to help customers and partners to take China innovation global,” Joe said.

According to him, Microsoft’s new data center came as its local customers and partners are growing rapidly. “In cloud computing, we really think that we have an opportunity to grow faster (in China) than Microsoft in the rest of the world,” Joe said, adding that the company has been building on industry expertise in technology to better serve customers.

At the fourth CIIE, Microsoft announced its cooperation with SGS China to launch S-Carbon, the world’s first dual-standard intelligent cloud carbon management platform, based on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure. SGS is a world-renowned company specializing in carbon inventory and auditing.

Seeing the big potential of leveraging digital innovation in boosting China’s healthcare industry, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, the world’s leading healthcare company, announced over the weekend that they will deepen cooperation in the Chinese market.

Microsoft China also announced a partner enablement program with Sony Semiconductor Solutions (Shanghai) Ltd to encourage China’s local qualified independent software vendors and system integrator partners to create commercial AI camera-driven solutions, combining Sony’s intelligent vision sensor IMX500 with Microsoft Azure’s AI technology capabilities to achieve AI processing on edge computing.

As part of the partnership, Microsoft and Sony also jointly launched Co-Innovation Labs in China for partners and enterprise customers in the areas of computer vision and video analytics, which offer access and facilities to build, develop, prototype and test solutions for partners and customers.