Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced a new three-part initiative to ensure that Microsoft’s cloud computing resources serve the public good. As part of the initiative, the recently formed Microsoft Philanthropies will donate USD 1 billion of Microsoft Cloud Services, measured at fair market value, to serve nonprofits and university researchers over the next three years.
The initiative will see a three-part commitment by the company to provide additional cloud resources to nonprofits, increase access for university researchers and help solve last-mile internet access challenges. The nonprofit programme will begin rolling out this spring, with Microsoft Philanthropies aiming to serve 70,000 nonprofits over the next three years.
Regarding cloud resources for faculty research in universities, Microsoft Research and Microsoft Philanthropies will expand by 50 percent the Microsoft Azure for Research programme that grants free Azure storage and computing resources for faculty. The programme currently provides free cloud computing resources for over 600 research projects on six continents.
For the last thrust of the initiative, 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.
Microsoft was already engaged in a number of cloud partnerships. The company is, for example, working working with the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Biodiversity Research Program, using 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. With the University of Texas at Austin (Project Catapult), Microsoft is making 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.
