March 14, 2013 News Thursday: Windows Azure Customer Spotlights and More Server and Tools News…

by STB Blogger

Take a Look at Who’s Developing on Windows Azure

People are doing amazing things with Windows Azure. From pushing the boundaries of technology to connecting real people to real business solutions, the possibilities using Windows Azure are endless. Every couple of weeks we will highlight customers and the amazing things they are accomplishing with Windows Azure.

Korean game designer, Webzen, chose Windows Azure for its global online game Arctic Combat, a competitive game where users around the globe can fight together. To scale with user demands and ensure fast and seamless gameplay, the company decided to work with Windows Azure to support the game. As a result, Webzen saw 2.5 times faster service speeds worldwide, assuring that real time gameplay is stable and that the tension of Arctic Combat is maintained. You can read more about Webzen and how the cloud is powering Arctic Combat on the Windows Azure Blog.

VisibleBrands has introduced technology built on Windows Azure that enables brands to electronically deliver coupons in supermarkets and offer shoppers savings as they browse. By using Windows Azure, a shopper can accept a coupon by touching a screen, which is “clipped to cloud,” and have a discount automatically applied to the purchase at checkout. Windows Azure enables VisibleBrands to efficiently and cost effectively deliver a scalable solution across multiple chains and thousands of stores, and manage a network centrally without the requirement to put a server in each store and manage it locally. You can read more about VisibleBrands and its in-store electronic coupon solution on the Windows Azure Blog.

Hybrid Cloud Storage – Look Closely Before Picking a Solution

Enterprise customers are increasingly looking at cloud storage as a way to leverage the benefits of cloud economics and agility without giving up performance and improving data protection capabilities. Many approaches to public cloud storage give you access, but little else. The Microsoft-StorSimple answer is to take a hybrid approach to cloud storage that spans your on-premises storage investments and public cloud storage. The Hybrid Cloud Storage approach brings benefits you just can’t get any other way – learn more here. 

So You Think You Know Excel: Test Your Knowledge of Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools

Microsoft recently launched the “So You Think You Know Excel” trivia challenge on Facebook to highlight the business intelligence (BI) features in the recently released Microsoft Office Excel 2013. Through a Facebook app, Excel users are challenged to answer a series of 15 questions about BI in Excel 2013 that cover topics such as xVelocity in-memory analytics, PowerPivot, and Power View. Contestants can compete with friends and other users for the top score on the leaderboard and are entered to win a Kinect for Xbox 360 Prize Pack.

The app is available for Facebook users to try now, and the Excel 2013 preview is available for download here.