[May 22, 2013] Microsoft becomes first foreign multinational firm offering cloud services in Ch Tweet SHANGHAI, May 22, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- China-based 21Vianet Group and Microsoft jointly announced here on Wednesday that the Chinese company will officially start to operate Microsoft's public cloud service platform, Windows Azure, in China. The move represents that Microsoft has become the first foreign multinational company that brings public cloud services to the Chinese market. According to the agreement between 21Vianet Group and Microsoft, the Chinese company is authorized to provide computing, storage, data base, integration and networking services on the basis of Windows Azure. According to a report on the development of China's public cloud service in 2012 released in April by China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a total of 79 percent Chinese corporate users recognize cloud computing, showing public cloud services have a potential user group of a certain size in the Chinese market. (Edited by Luo Jingjing, [email protected]) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]