Microsoft to offer local Azure

WASHINGTON: Microsoft Corp on Monday unveiled a new service that allows customers to use its cloud technology on their own servers, part of the company´s efforts to refocus its product line to compete more effectively with rivals Amazon.com Inc and Google.

“One of the key differentiations we have with Azure versus our two biggest competitors in the cloud platform space is our ability to support true hybrid solutions,” Judson Althoff, Microsoft´s executive vice president of worldwide commercial business, told Reuters.

Microsoft is hoping to carve a niche among customers who cannot or do not want to have to move all their computing operations to the massive shared data centers that are collectively known as the cloud.