Fujitsu Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced a new worldwide cloud computing partnership that enables Fujitsu to deploy the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu datacenters. Fujitsu will deliver a comprehensive set of new cloud services and solutions, including system integration, cloud migration and managed services, to customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Fujitsu will also run its own applications on the Windows Azure platform appliance. The new Fujitsu cloud services and solutions based on the Windows Azure platform will be available first in Fujitsu's datacenters in Japan, starting at the Fujitsu Tatebayashi System Center by the end of 2010, to be followed by other locations around the world. In addition to the appliance, Fujitsu will be providing services on the Windows Azure platform to customers on a global basis.

Microsoft is investing deeply to enable the transformation of cloud computing, while the Windows Azure platform appliance will add to Fujitsu's cloud portfolio by supporting three modes of cloud consumption identified by Fujitsu -- infrastructure as a service, applications as a service and activity as a service. Activity as a service allows customers to subscribe to business services, specified in business rather than technology terms, and it represents a significant shift in the way the IT industry creates value, with the emergence of new business models to create new services. As a result of the expanded partnership between Fujitsu and Microsoft, customers will be able to easily address new business scenarios that require rapid scaling of applications and obtain services that are predictable and immediately consumable.

"Fujitsu has a vision of a prosperous, human-centric, intelligent, networked society, and this strategic global partnership with Microsoft is a major step forward in being able to realize this," said Kazuo Ishida, corporate senior executive vice president, responsible for ICT Services Business, Fujitsu. "Through this alliance, we are providing our customers with a new array of possibilities in cloud computing. Our partnership with Microsoft truly reflects Fujitsu's cloud strategy and will no doubt break new ground in contributing to the creation of an IT-networked society."

Microsoft also announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run their own datacenters. Customers and initial partners such as Fujitsu using the appliance in their datacenters will have the scale out application platform and datacenter efficiency of Windows Azure and SQL Azure offered by Microsoft today.

"We believe the introduction of the Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important industry milestone in the transformation to cloud computing," said Bob Muglia, president of Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. "By extending the power of our cloud platform to customer and service provider datacenters like Fujitsu, we are paving the way for more customers to fully realize the business benefits of the cloud."

In addition to deploying the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu's datacenters, the partnership also involves both companies, combining their strengths to develop a Fujitsu-branded Windows Azure platform appliance that customers will be able to purchase and deploy in their own datacenters, using Fujitsu's hardware technology.

Fujitsu will also train more than 5,000 consultants and developers to work with customers and ISVs to consult, develop and integrate new and existing applications on the Windows Azure platform. In addition, Fujitsu and Microsoft will develop sales and marketing activities to further promote the new cloud services.

With decades-long experience and a proven track record together, Fujitsu and Microsoft can provide the utmost support in enabling large- and medium-sized businesses to transition and migrate their largest and most complex environments to cloud services -- with the added benefit of Fujitsu's telecommunications and networking expertise to ensure that disruption is minimized and the resulting solution is robust.