Fujitsu brings Azure to Australia in 2011

Following months of speculation, IT service provider Fujitsu has revealed it plans to deploy Microsoft Azure services in Australia using local infrastructure.

(Sweet home under white clouds image by Jose Roberto V Moraes, CC2.0)

Conway Kosi, group executive director, Solutions & Strategic Initiatives, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand told ZDNet Australia that Fujitsu plans to roll-out Azure products into Australia in 2011.

"We are committing to three approaches for Azure. A Fujitsu-hosted Azure environment domestically, big businesses buying their own Azure appliances based on Fujitsu platform, and where we provide the Microsoft-hosted Azure environment out of Singapore," Kosi said.

Cameron McNaught, executive general manager solutions for Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, said that Fujitsu and Microsoft are in the process of training 5000 staff with Azure knowledge.

According to Kosi, July saw 50 staff from around the world attend Azure training in the US, with around 10 staff from Australia getting into Azure shape in the process.

The training is set to take between six to 12 months.

The Azure revelations came as Fujitsu announced a new self-service cloud portal.

Built in-house at Fujitsu's Melbourne offices, the portal allows customers to start and stop virtual machines, view utilisation statistics in relation to storage and usage, and review the performance of cloud-based systems. Previously, customers would need to contact Fujitsu to achieve service changes.