"Early adopter" Canadian customers first to preview Microsoft Azure
services delivered from local cloud regions in Toronto and Quebec City
TORONTO, March 14, 2016 /CNW/ - Microsoft Canada today announced that
its new Canadian cloud regions are delivering an operational preview of
Microsoft Azure cloud services to select customers. This milestone
marks the start of a significant expansion of Microsoft's trusted cloud
services into Canada. The preview gives select customers and partners a
chance to run enterprise-ready Azure services which enable scalable
access to infrastructure and storage services from the new cloud
environment, helping customers achieve more through a highly scalable
global cloud platform.
"Today, our 'early adopter' customers are the first to utilize Microsoft
Azure from our cloud regions here on Canadian soil," said Microsoft
Canada president Janet Kennedy. "For banks, governments and others who
need to know exactly where their data sits, this represents a major
leap forward in their ability to fully harness the power of the cloud."
According to IDC, the government market for public IaaS is expected to
outpace the overall Canadian IaaS market with a 48% growth rate through
2019. The SMB market is also projected to grow at a steady rate of 27%.
Kennedy continued, "These investments reflect Microsoft's ongoing
commitment to expanding cloud services and supporting the growth of
innovation for Canada's technology future. Our new local services will
accelerate the potential of Canadian industries, public sector
organizations, and entrepreneurs by opening opportunities to innovate,
compete, and grow using the power of the cloud."
Azure is generally available in 22 regions around the world. The new
Canadian cloud regions are part of Microsoft's plans for six new
regions, all backed by Microsoft's $15 billion (USD) investment in
global datacentre infrastructure. As previously announced, Microsoft
plans to launch Azure from the Canadian cloud regions into general
availability in Q2 2016, followed by its flagship productivity
solutions Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.
Azure customers in Canada will benefit from enterprise-grade reliability
and performance combined with in-country data residency, including data
replication in multiple locations within Canada for business
continuity, and a financially-backed service level agreements (SLA)
with 99.9% availability. The new locally delivered services in Canada
feature the same industry-leading levels of security, privacy, control,
compliance, and transparency that define the Microsoft trusted cloud
globally.
Microsoft is adding new datacentres in Canada that will both deliver
Microsoft cloud services and provide commitments for core data stored
at rest within Canada for Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.
Microsoft will become the first cloud provider in Canada to offer an
enterprise-grade, hyper-scale, true hybrid platform certified to meet
customers legal and compliance requirements. Customers can leverage
Microsoft's ecosystem of 10,000 partner nationally to take advantage of
these offerings.
PCL Construction, one of the largest contracting organizations in North
America, is one of the select customers chosen to preview Azure in the
Canadian cloud regions. "We've been a Microsoft Azure customer for
several years and see it as a strategic offering fueling our cloud
initiatives. The agility and flexibility it affords the PCL team has
been extremely valuable and complimentary to our strategic objectives
of reducing time to market and simplifying our cost structure," said
PCL chief information officer Mark Bryant.
Many other Canadian customers are also experiencing the benefits of the
Cloud. TD Bank recently migrated employees to Office 365 and realized
a significant cost savings along with regulatory-compliant and higher
secure service. "TD is focused on a technology transformation that
prioritizes speed and agility," says Jeff Henderson, Executive
Vice-President and CIO, TD Bank. "Our email migration to the Cloud is
just one example of how we are delivering on this strategy and
embracing new technologies to improve the employee and customer
experience."
Similarly, Gibsons has also embraced the cloud. "Moving to Microsoft
Azure for key applications and services like Office 365, SharePoint
Online, Dynamics CRM and IoT/Advanced Analytics has empowered Gibsons
to increase efficiencies, eliminate security concerns and has enabled
us to deliver a seamless employee experience anywhere, anytime on any
device" said Richard Hannah, Vice President of Information Services at
Gibsons. "We see it as a strategic offering that cuts costs and allows
our teams to focus on what is most important, the business—not on the
technology."
To learn more about customers benefiting from the Microsoft Cloud, visit
us at accelerate.microsoft.ca.
For additional testimonials from customers participating in the private
preview, please see below.
AZURE PREVIEW CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL
Panasonic
"For Panasonic, participating in the Preview of Azure offers an
invaluable opportunity to ensure and enhance connectivity performance
between important policing tools such as In Car Camera and Body
Wearable Camera UEMS," said Susan Black, Senior Director, IT and
Security Solutions, Panasonic Canada Inc. "Microsoft also offers us
the integrity and reliability required to satisfy our uniquely
high-level security needs. The availability of two separate Canadian
cloud regions provides the redundancy features that our Public Safety
customers demand when it comes to secure cloud management and data
storage services."
Dyrand Systems
"Through the Azure preview, Microsoft Canada provides Dyrand Systems
with tangible benefits that strengthen not only our performance but our
bottom line," said Marie Pin, Director of Business Solutions, Dyrand
Systems. "The versatility, security and reliability of the platform,
anchored by two regions in Canada, allows us to lower costs, increase
efficiency, develop new verticals and eliminate the burden of dealing
with and paying for multiple hosting providers. In turn, we are able to
provide to our clients a superior suite of services that are
Canadian-based, regulatory-compliant, redundancy-proofed."
ABOUT MICROSOFT CANADA
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Inc. is the Canadian subsidiary of
Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software,
services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their
full potential. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing,
consulting and local support services in both French and English.
Headquartered in Mississauga, Microsoft Canada has nine regional
offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great
software - any time, any place and on any device. For more information
on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca.
SOURCE Microsoft Canada Inc.
