A Windows Azure platform update from “The Entertainment Capital of the World”, Las Vegas, and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show going on there.

At the show we announced that we’re working with a variety of industry partners and creating a partner ecosystem to help Media and Entertainment (M&E) companies take advantage of cloud computing. The end goal is to provide the industry with a simplified digital supply chain.

There are a variety potential benefits that M&E companies will be able to experience with the combined strength of the partner ecosystem and the Windows Azure platform, including:

•  
  • * Reduce capital expenditures for new IT infrastructure
  • * Allow innovation and shorten time to market for new digital media services, lowering risk and giving media companies the opportunity to test new services and business models
  • * Better provision resources to focus on their core strengths in media creation and delivery instead of IT
  • * Leverage economies of scale of Microsoft’s datacenters and platform investments
  • * Develop and deliver new applications and services on a global scale

As with all Microsoft’s cloud offerings, we understand that customers will most likely need and want to utilize a combination of on-premise and off-premise IT resources and tools, which is why we’ve ensured solutions we provide deliver that flexibility. To this point Jake Winett, director of Media & Entertainment Industry Solutions with Microsoft, says:

“We understand that media customers need a hybrid, flexible approach that allows them to access a custom set of offerings and tools specific to their needs. The M&E partners working with Microsoft are able to balance multiple applications within a cloud environment because Windows Azure is a technology-agnostic platform. This makes it easier for companies to create, manage, deliver and monetize media on a wide range of platforms and devices.”

Microsoft has already actively been working with the industry as well on Windows Azure solutions including the work on “Avatar” during its filming and companies such as Pixar.

You can check out the full information on the news here and check out the following links for more information on the Windows Azure platform or other business oriented cloud offerings from Microsoft at the Cloud Power site.

As always if you have questions or comments, please leave them here and I’ll work to get back to you as quickly as possible via this forum.

Thanks for your time - larry