Microsoft grabs its biggest cloud deal with 7.5m users signed up

Microsoft is set to roll out its largest cloud contract offering a whopping 7.5 million users access to Microsoft Live@edu. The new service will connect an array of colleges, many situated in remote parts of India.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has signed up Microsoft to provide the hosted communication and collaboration service to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes. Live@edu provides email, Microsoft Office, instant messaging and storage to its customers, AICTE is also expected to sign up for Office 365 for Education when that becomes available later this year.

Microsoft won the contract under competition from several vendors, including IBM and Google. Microsoft got the nod thanks to its experience in selling to higher education (and commitment to the education sector in general), its seamless integration with its other products and its ability to deploy its software across many geographically dispersed locations.

The education body sees the rollout of the technology is important to the effectiveness of the colleges. "Microsoft’s cloud platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country’s technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students," said Dr SS Mantha, chairman of AICTE.