by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Markets, Technology, World
Dublin : Microsoft has signed a 15-year wind energy agreement with GE in Ireland, becoming one of the first global technology firms to support a new wind project in the country.
Microsoft will purchase 100 per cent of the wind energy from its new, 37-megawatt Tullahennel wind farm in County Kerry, Ireland.
The agreement will help support the growing demand for Microsoft Cloud services from Ireland, the company said in a statement late on Monday.
As part of the deal, Microsoft also signed an agreement with Dublin-based energy trading company ElectroRoute that will provide energy trading services to Microsoft.
“Microsoft is proud to be deepening our long history of investment and partnership in Ireland with this agreement,” said Christian Belady, General Manager, Datacentre Strategy at Microsoft.
“Our commitment will help bring new, clean energy to the Irish grid, and contains innovative elements that have the potential to grow the capacity, reliability and capability of the grid,” he added.
The wind farm will integrate GE’s ‘Digital Wind Farm’ technology, which makes renewable energy outputs even more reliable.
“This partnership with Microsoft expands GE’s considerable presence and investment in Ireland, where we already employ over 1,500 people and in particular in the renewable energy sector,” said Andres Isaza, Chief Commercial Officer of GE Renewable Energy.
Once operational, the new wind project will bring Microsoft’s total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects to almost 600 megawatts.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : In a bid to bolster its Mixed Reality vision, Microsoft has acquired Redwood City, California-based virtual reality social network AltspaceVR for an undisclosed sum.
“With the AltspaceVR team aboard, we look forward to building the world’s pre-eminent mixed reality community,” Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s inventor of HoloLens, said in a post late on Tuesday.
AltspaceVR is one of the pioneers in immersive communications.
“It brings people together in virtual reality from over 160 countries to attend meet-ups, comedy shows, yoga classes, dance parties, and large-scale events hosted by NBC, Reggie Watts, Justin Roiland, Drew Carey and more,” Kipman added.
According to him, on October 17, Windows Mixed Reality fans can enjoy more than 20,000 apps in the Microsoft Store.
“We recently announced that the hottest VR games are coming to the Microsoft Store and Windows Mixed Reality,” Kipman said.
“Halo” game fans will be able to get their first glimpse of what mixed reality and Halo can feel like.
Mixed reality on Windows PCs begins with the upcoming release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
“It’s the first spatial operating system — complete with a library of content that will inspire you, and a portfolio of the best, easiest to use and most affordable headsets paired with the most powerful motion controllers,” Kipman added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, Markets, Networking, Technology
San Francisco : After years of increasing involvement and engagement in open source software projects and communities, Microsoft on Thursday announced to formally join the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as a Premium Sponsor.
Launched in 1998, the OSI is a global non-profit dedicated to promoting and protecting open source software through education, collaboration and infrastructure.
Microsoft joins the likes of Google, IGM, HPE and GitHub as top sponsors of the OSI. Other sponsors are RedHat, The Linux Foundation, Mozilla and HP.
“This is a significant milestone for the OSI and the open source software movement more broadly,” Patrick Masson, OSI General Manager and Board Director, said in a statement.
For many in the open source software community, it was Microsoft’s release of .NET in 2014 under an open source license that may fave first caught their attention.
Microsoft has increasingly participated in open source projects and communities as users, contributors, and creators, and has released even more open source products like Visual Studio Code and Typescript.
“As Microsoft engages with open source communities more broadly and deeply, we are excited to support the Open Source Initiative’s efforts,” added Jeff McAffer, Director of Microsoft’s Open Source Programme’s Office.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : In an incredible feat, Microsoft, Facebook and the telecom infrastructure company Telxius have laid a 6,598 km cable across the Atlantic Ocean that is capable of transmitting 160 terabits of data per second.
The companies announced the completion of the highest capacity subsea cable ‘Marea’ (tide) that delivers 16 million times faster Internet than an average home web connection, Microsoft wrote in a blog post.
Microsoft claims that the superfast Internet speed delivered by Marea can stream 71 million HD videos simultaneously.
“Marea comes at a critical time. Submarine cables in the Atlantic already carry 55 per cent more data than trans-Pacific routes and 40 per cent more data than between the US and Latin America. There is no question that the demand for data flows across the Atlantic will continue to increase,” said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, in a blog post.
For most of the route, the cable — made up of eight pairs of fibre optic cables enclosed by copper — lays on the ocean floor. Some parts are buried to protect from shipping traffic, usually in areas closer to the shore, the company said.
The cable that lies 17,000 feet below the ocean surface and extends between Virginia Beach in the US and the city of Bilbao in Spain, would be operational by early 2018.
Microsoft said the project was completed nearly three times faster than usual, in under two years.
Google has also invested in two cables that run from the US to Japan, covering South America and several Asian countries.
With the Marea cable, Facebook and Microsoft’s investment gives them more control over the vast amounts of data they need to move quickly around the world, the report said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Ideas, Entrepreneurship, Startup Basics, Your Business Plan
New Delhi : Microsoft has supported over 4,000 Indian start-ups, skill training for 30,000 youth and helped train 26,000 teachers while working with several state governments and not-for-profit organisations between April 2016 and March 2017 in India, a new report said on Friday.
In its 2017 India Citizenship Report, Microsoft India said it recognises that India’s entrepreneurial landscape would aid robust economic growth in the coming years and was committed to contributing to the Indian start-up growth story.
The company supported and guided the start-ups with programmes like BizSpark, Microsoft Accelerator, among others.
BizSpark, a Microsoft flagship initiative, is aimed at supporting early stage start-ups. More than 100 Indian start-ups were selected under the BizSpark Plus programme in 2016-17 which helped them grow their customer base.
Microsoft Accelerator empowered start-ups on their journey to build great companies, working with market-ready start-ups and provide the tools, resources, connections, knowledge and expertise that they need to become successful companies.
The Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Programme served to accelerate the adoption of services such as Microsoft Azure and transform business and governance in a mobile-first and cloud-first world.
Under Project Shiksha, Microsoft India trained over 8,124 teachers in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, impacting 361,000 students.
Under Project Saksham, Microsoft has conducted trainings for over 3,307 educators across 123 universities. These faculty members have, in turn, trained 1,126 of their peers. In 2016-17, 661 teachers across 21 universities were trained.
As part of the Microsoft Educator Community programme, the Maharashtra government adopted the QR Coded textbook idea catalysed by a Microsoft India Educator Rajintsinh Disale, which allows teachers to receive additional resources and information related to a textbook by simply scanning a QR code.
In line with government’s Skill India vision, the company brought Predictive Analysis and Machine Learning technologies to education, healthcare and agriculture in partnership with several state governments.
The company’s integrated cloud-first, mobile-first solutions have improved processes, productivity and mobility, in order to accelerate India’s digital transformation.
Microsoft Philanthropies has invested over $10 million in cash and technology to transform the way non-profits deliver impact in India, offering educational opportunities to the next generation.
—IANS
