Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella announced a new three-part
initiative to ensure that Microsoft’s cloud computing resources serve the
public good. As part of this initiative the recently formed Microsoft
Philanthropies will donate $1 billion of Microsoft Cloud Services, measured at
fair market value, to serve nonprofits and university researchers over the next
three years.
Microsoft’s three-part commitment focuses on ensuring the cloud
can serve the public good in the broadest sense by providing additional cloud
resources to nonprofits, increasing access for university researchers and
helping solve last-mile Internet access challenges.
“Microsoft is empowering mission-driven organizations around the
planet with a donation of cloud computing services — the most transformative
technologies of our generation,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who on
Wednesday will speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Now
more than 70,000 organizations will have access to technology that will help
them solve our greatest societal challenges and ultimately improve the human
condition and drive new growth equally.”
Cloud computing has emerged as a vital resource for unlocking
the secrets held by data in ways that create new insights and lead to
breakthroughs not just for science and technology, but for the full range of
economic and social challenges and the delivery of better human services. It
can also improve communications and problem-solving and help organizations work
in a more productive and more efficient manner.
In September 2015, 193 heads of state and other world leaders
unanimously adopted 17 sustainable development goals to achieve by 2030. This
ambitious agenda — which includes ending poverty, ending hunger, and ensuring
affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all — will only be achievable
with the benefit of significant inventions and technology innovations. The
scale and computational power enabled by cloud computing will be essential to
unlocking solutions to this list of some of the world’s seemingly unsolvable
problems.
“We’re committed to helping nonprofit groups and universities
use cloud computing to address fundamental human challenges,” said Microsoft
President Brad Smith. “One of our ambitions for Microsoft Philanthropies is to
partner with these groups and ensure that cloud computing reaches more people
and serves the broadest array of societal needs.”
Specific elements of the new initiative include these:
· Serving the broad needs of the nonprofit
community. A new global donation program will make Microsoft Cloud Services,
including Microsoft Azure, Power BI, CRM Online and the Enterprise Mobility
Suite, more available to nonprofit organizations through Microsoft
Philanthropies. The program builds upon an already successful program that
provides similar access to Office 365 for nonprofits. The nonprofit program for
Microsoft Cloud Services will begin rolling out this spring, and Microsoft
Philanthropies aims to serve 70,000 nonprofits in the next three years with
these Microsoft Cloud Services.
· Expanding access to cloud resources for
faculty research in universities. Microsoft Research and Microsoft
Philanthropies will expand by 50 percent the Microsoft Azure for Research
program that grants free Azure storage and computing resources to help faculty
accelerate their research on cutting-edge challenges. Today this program provides
free cloud computing resources for over 600 research projects on six
continents.
· Reaching new communities with last-mile
connectivity and cloud services. Microsoft Philanthropies and Microsoft
Business Development will combine donated access to Microsoft Cloud services
with investments in new, low-cost last-mile Internet access technologies and
community training. By combining cloud services with connectivity and training,
and focusing on new public-private partnerships, Microsoft Philanthropies
intends to support 20 of these projects in at least 15 countries around the
world by the middle of 2017.
· Providing nonprofits with better access to
Microsoft Cloud Services, including the powerful Microsoft Azure platform,
builds upon Microsoft’s longtime commitment to making cutting-edge technology
available at no or low cost to organizations working on solving some of
society’s toughest problems.
In recent years, as organizations have increased their reliance
on cloud computing, Microsoft has worked in partnership with a broad range of
organizations focused on big challenges. The initiatives show the potential
impact that increased access to the transformational power of cloud computing
can have:
· Microsoft Research is working with the São
Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Biodiversity Research Program through the
use of 700 wireless sensors, cloud technology and automated data-stream
processing to understand how cloud forests work and study the impact of climate
changes on the communities supported by those forests.
· Through a partnership with the University of
Texas at Austin called Project Catapult, Microsoft makes advanced cloud
computing technology available to researchers that have demonstrated the
ability to deliver lower power and cost, higher-quality results, or a
combination of both.
· In Botswana, Microsoft is partnering with the
Botswana Innovation Hub, Vista Life Sciences, the United States Agency for
International Development and Global Broadband Solutions to assist Botswana,
the University of Pennsylvania and the Ministry of Health in leveraging
cloud-based health records management and Internet access enabled by use of TV
white spaces to remotely deliver specialized medicine, including cervical cancer
screenings to women at rural healthcare clinics.
“Access to technology is critical to the
operations and services of NetHope and its 44 humanitarian nonprofit member
organizations,” said NetHope CEO Lauren Woodman. “The power of cloud computing
will create exponential value for all we do to serve the millions of people in
our communities around the world.”
