Russia’s national telecom operator Rostelecom, US software giant Microsoft, and top Russian enterprise software publisher 1S signed agreements to jointly develop cloud computing projects.
Appointed in March by the Russian government to develop a national cloud computing platform by 2015, Rostelecom announced its intention to invest more than ten billion rubles (approximately $357 million) into the project.
Microsoft intends to offer software services based on Rostelecom’s cloud platform. The companies are to set up a competence center for cloud solutions to support the platform as well as their clients.
The companies will also partner to create cloud-based applications for e-government services at the federal and local levels as well as for automatization of governmental agencies.
These agreements were the first ones in Russia to have been signed using electronic digital signatures right on the laptops used at the 10th International Investment Forum Sochi-2011.
Source: Rostelecom, ITAR-TASS
