OREANDA-NEWS. Fujitsu announced the immediate availability of FUJITSU Cloud PaaS A5 for Windows Azure, an upgrade to its public cloud based on Windows Azure, as part of a new alliance with Microsoft Corporation. 

The public cloud based on Windows Azure that Fujitsu has provided from its datacenters since August 2011 will be renamed as A5 for Windows Azure, with the service environment shifted to the datacenters that Microsoft has established in Japan.

This move will allow Fujitsu to make the latest features in Windows Azure available from Microsoft's datacenters in Japan, and charge the same price as Microsoft charges for Windows Azure. As before, Fujitsu will continue to provide 24 value-added services, including 24/ 7 Japanese-language support, Windows Azure-compatible software, application services that run on A5 for Windows Azure, data backup and operation-monitoring services.

Fujitsu has positioned A5 for Windows Azure as a public cloud service in its FUJITSU Cloud Initiative, which systematizes the products and services it offers for the cloud. It will also offer one-stop shopping for the building of hybrid clouds, which are increasingly in demand.