Microsoft today announced that it has made purchasing Microsoft Azure simpler for SMBs by making it available in the open licensing catalogue for India. With this move, SMBs can now purchase Microsoft Azure cloud platform from their local IT partner. With the inclusion of Azure, SMBs will now be able to procure their entire IT portfolio from a single Microsoft partner of their choice.
Office 365 is already available in the open catalogue. With the addition of Azure, SMBs will be able to quickly build and deploy applications at reduced costs with flexible monetary terms and achieve faster return on investment.
Earlier customers could purchase Azure either directly from www.azure.microsoft.com or as part of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft. While these options would continue, SMBs are likely to leverage their existing partners to procure Azure.
“Over the years, our customers have been able to adopt and benefit from new technologies though the support of our 10,000 strong partner network. By making Azure available through local partners, we are further helping India’s SMBs secure the great benefits of cloud computing”, said Meetul Patel, General Manager, Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners, India.
Microsoft is continuing to enable SMB customers and partners to embrace cloud as the preferred mode for deployment of IT. Azure further incentivises partners to ‘do more’ for SMBs. It will help them deepen the engagement with customers in identifying and supporting IT usage through Azure. Partners will also be able to strengthen their revenue stream while working closely with customers.