Windows Azure Accelerator in China: Launching Innovation into the Cloud

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing & Operations

Innovation is happening all around the world, with companies offering customers solutions that blend proprietary and open source software. This especially holds true in cloud, where companies are making advancements at a pace that will continue to get faster and faster.  Startups in China are generating some impressive innovations, and Microsoft is proud to have recently launched our first Windows Azure Accelerator in the country to assist high potential startups with key Microsoft resources and mentoring to help them reach the next level and “become successful businesses,” according to David Lin, Microsoft’s Accelerator Director. Hosted in Beijing at Microsoft’s Asia Pacific R&D headquarters, the Azure Accelerator has announced its first class of 10 startup companies, most of which are working across a variety of platforms.  Startup teams are supplied with Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure, but there are no other requirements regarding development platforms. In fact, eight of the 10 startups are developing on open source technologies. To read more about the Azure Accelerator and get a glimpse at the first 10 companies to participate, see Sarah Perez’s post from earlier this month over at TechCrunch.