REDMOND, Wash. — May 25 , 2012 — Otto Japan Inc. has upgraded its email platform by adopting Microsoft Exchange Online from Microsoft Office 365. The fashion retailer, which sells its diverse product line through catalogues, stores and online, wanted to move away from Notes, its previous email software, in favor of a comprehensive solution that allowed for large-capacity mailboxes, fewer operational management hours and the optimization of IT costs.

In a competitive market, Otto Japan makes customer service its first priority and aims to find a balance between creativity and speed in its customer relations. It has particularly demonstrated its brand appeal online, with Internet sales showing an annual growth rate of approximately 20 percent. With the goal of continued growth, Otto Japan recognized the importance of speediness in efficiency and sought to reform its information platform. Leveraging an upcoming expiration of Notes, the company chose to install Microsoft Corp.’s public cloud service after also considering Google Apps.

“Speed and ease of use were essential,” said Nobuhiko Kita of the information systems department at Otto Japan. “Second, we decided cloud software would be an effective measure in our business continuity plan. After experiencing the Great East Japan Earthquake, making systems run during a disaster and protecting data on the server have become vital considerations.”

To quickly transition to Office 365, it requested installation support from its business associate Kyoritsu Computer & Communication Co. Ltd., which helped make the migration more effective.

“If we were allowed to spend one year on migration, we probably could have carried it out by ourselves. But if we spent time doing that, the benefits of adopting cloud services would be weakened,” Kita said.

Since the company moved to the cloud, Kita estimates that administrative man-hours have decreased by approximately 30 percent. To optimize IT costs over a life cycle of four to five years, approximately 400 users companywide have adopted Office 365 as a global information-sharing environment, and many executives are now using email on company-provided smartphones and tablet PCs.

“The final important point was being able to use the system globally without issues,” Kita said. “Since our employees have to make many trips abroad, a service that allows us to use it freely around the globe was a precondition for adoption.”

More information on Otto Japan’s move to Microsoft Exchange Online is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight News Center.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 24, 2012 — Market demand is growing for easy access to data across multiple platforms and devices. The move to cloud computing is increasing pressure to create a more open and programmable Web by having a common approach to expose and consume data.

Based on that demand, Citrix Systems Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Progress Software, SAP AG and WSO2 are proposing an Open Data Protocol (OData) Technical Committee (TC) in the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), an international open standards consortium. Citrix, EastBanc Technologies and Viecore FSD, among many others, have recently demonstrated OData applications, and hundreds of interested parties are registered on the http://www.odata.org open community mail list.

Built on standards such as HTTP, JSON and AtomPub, OData is a Web protocol for unlocking and sharing data — freeing it from silos that exist in some software applications today. The OData protocol supports serialization in multiple popular formats, including JSON and Atom/XML. With OData, developers are able to build cross-platform Web and mobile applications.

OData Use Cases Span Industries

Since its introduction, OData has reached into all sectors — from enterprise to consumer, from government to internal systems.

One example is SAP NetWeaver® Gateway technology, which exposes SAP® Business Suite software to clients on diverse platforms through OData. In addition, Microsoft customers can use OData to access SharePoint lists, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Windows Azure Marketplace – DataMarket, to name a few. Furthermore, IBM offerings such as WebSphere eXtreme Scale, DB2 and Informix also support OData.

OData is helping transform Open Government initiatives to publish government data for public use. For example, the cities of Regina and Medicine Hat in Canada and the National Government of Colombia have launched open data catalogues using the OData protocol. OData is also making access to data easier for U.K. citizens following a decision by the government to release Met Office weather information to the public.

At a recent two-day OData meetup, customers shared their experiences using OData. Citrix representatives spoke on using OData to power mobile work styles. EastBanc Technologies employees shared how they built a metropolitan transit visualization tool around OData. Representatives from Viecore described how they used OData to build advanced decision support and control systems for the U.S. military, citing their ability to rapidly iterate on application designs and requirements based on OData’s flexibility and loose client and server coupling.

OData Ecosystem Built by Producers and Consumers

The OData protocol has evolved through an open process on the public OData site during the past three years. There is a strong ecosystem of OData producers, consumers and libraries — several of them open source — including Java, PHP, Drupal, Joomla, Node.js, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, DB2 and Informix, iOS, Windows Phone 7, and Android. Community feedback and broad implementation experience have influenced development of the OData specifications, which will be contributed to the OASIS OData TC for standardization.

“The interest in OData has grown exponentially,” said Laurent Liscia, executive director, OASIS. “We’re very pleased to see the community come together in OASIS to standardize the OData protocol using the latest Web tools — JSON and AtomPub in a RESTful environment. This will facilitate interoperability across implementations.”

Planned Contributions to the OASIS OData TC

Microsoft will be contributing seven OData specification components, currently under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, to the OASIS OData TC. IBM, Microsoft and SAP will also contribute four OData extension proposals.

Support for OData Standardization

“To accomplish the goal of open data for the open Web, we have seen a push for support to enable access to and use of data across platforms, applications and devices,” said Jean Paoli, president, Microsoft Open Technologies Inc. “Taking steps to standardize OData through OASIS allows developers to act on the data in a more well-defined way.”

“Eliminating barriers in how data is accessed and shared is increasingly important for enterprise growth. IBM has a long history of supporting open standards and, especially, open standards for data access,” said Angel Diaz, vice president, Software Standards, IBM. “The movement of the OData specification into OASIS gives the standards community the ability to partner and help deliver pragmatic improvements for today’s enterprise data access requirements.”

“The OData protocol provides a standard mechanism for consuming enterprise data with a wide range of end-user experiences, devices and platforms via SAP NetWeaver Gateway,” said Reiner Hammerich, senior vice president, Product Architecture, SAP. “As a contributor to the OData specifications, SAP will work with OASIS on further standardization and broader adoption of the protocol.”

“OData is an excellent protocol for the Citrix system software. OData has already been implemented in one new product, and others are in progress,” said Martin Duursma, vice president, Citrix Labs, and chief technology officer, Office Chair. “The rich set of OData filters, data types and extensible functions more than meet the requirements of our products and enable us to develop services with the high levels of data integration and cross-platform interoperability that are required by our business.”

“As the leading global provider of data connectivity to independent software vendors and enterprises alike, Progress DataDirect’s core mission is to provide standards-based connectivity to any on-premises or cloud data source, from any application or device,” said Michael Benedict, vice president, Product Management at Progress Software. “We believe the OData standards will drive industrywide consensus and adoption of the next generation of data accessibility and action.”

“At WSO2, we have seen strong customer demand for OData and its lean, REST-based approach to data access, which is important to us and our customers,” said Paul Fremantle, co-founder and chief technology officer, WSO2. “OData richly complements our burgeoning efforts around data services, API management, JSON and AtomPub, and the move toward standardization at OASIS will only enhance that synergy.”

More information about OData is available at http://www.odata.org.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/PR_Contacts.aspx.

SAP, SAP NetWeaver and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

IBM, WebSphere, DB2 and Informix are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.

IT professionals looking for more information on how IBM technologies integrate with OData can visit IBM developerWorks.

REDMOND, W ash. —  May 24 , 2012 — The Catholic International Education Office (OIEC) has entered into an education alliance with Microsoft Corp. to provide Office 365 for its community of Catholic schools across the world as part of a new Social Network for Catholic Education. This will begin with provision of software for 4.5 million students as part of a three-year alliance plan but in time has the potential to scale across OIEC’s community of more than 43 million Catholic students at 210,000 schools in 102 countries. The new network will provide innovative software, services, training and access to technologies that will better prepare students for the jobs of the future.

OIEC’s mission includes the promotion of education for all, collaboration within academic communities and the fight against illiteracy worldwide. In an ever-evolving technology landscape, educators in the 21st century face continuing challenges to build skills among teachers and provide students with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful. Working closely with schools around the globe for more than 20 years, Microsoft has a deep appreciation for these challenges. Based on experience, Microsoft currently takes a holistic approach to working with schools, one that’s focused on improving educational outcomes for both students and educators that will have the greatest impact in the classroom.

“In alliance with Microsoft, we are entering a new era in global Catholic education,” said F. Angel Astorgano, general secretary, OIEC. “We will offer the most advanced technology, knowledge and skills to our schools so our next generation of graduates is prepared for the new challenges of the 21st century.”

In a competitive employment landscape, graduates who have developed technology skills are frequently provided with more opportunities. However, many schools around the globe are not able to evolve curriculum quickly enough to keep pace. Many schools simply do not have access to the technologies and training necessary to prepare students for the modern workforce.

“An innovative and forward-thinking Catholic organization is supporting the modernization of their schools, working with Microsoft and mutual partner Tralcom to deliver technology solutions to Catholic students and educators around the world,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. “We are excited about delivering on the technology needs of these students and supporting a global community of individuals with shared values, and helping to ensure they are well-equipped for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Through the Microsoft education alliance, OIEC will provide access to technology and training to students and teachers, as well as establish an online space for collaboration, communication and information sharing. The alliance with Microsoft consists of the following key elements:

• Access to technologies that help enable creativity, research and study, collaboration, and teaching and learning

• Creation of an online network for Catholic education and all OIEC schools

• Curriculum and training to develop digital literacy skills, help integrate technology into teaching and learning, and provide blueprints for innovative schooling

• Access to research findings and tools that measure and promote innovative education practices

Access Is Everything

According to an IDC study, more than half of today’s jobs require some technology skills, and that number will increase to 90 percent by 2015. Using workplace technology in a school environment gives students a head start when beginning their careers, whereas students with no access to technology will be at a disadvantage.

Office 365 for education offers powerful collaboration tools, including SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Lync Online and Office Web Apps, in the cloud for organizations of all sizes. Microsoft Office 365 for education delivers the power of cloud productivity to educational institutions, helping to save time and money while helping to increase student and faculty productivity through a rich set of privacy, security and protection capabilities. With Office 365 for education, OIEC students and educators will be able to do the following:

• Communicate using instant messaging and videoconferencing, taking part in virtual classes and transforming any conversation to include high-resolution video, application and desktop sharing

• Collaborate across the globe by creating class and group sites, which allow users to view availability of others and work together on projects in real time

• View, edit, and share Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files online with SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps, working together on projects and assignments

• Share calendars and access mail and calendars across devices with robust security and reliability

• Create and maintain compelling websites and edit them as easily as they would a Word document

In addition, OIEC’s community of schools will receive subscriptions for Microsoft Learning Suite, which includes a variety of tools and services that enable educators and students to create, conduct research, study, collaborate and teach.

Innovation N etworks Promote Collaboration

Beginning in 2013, components of the Microsoft Innovative Schools and Innovative Teachers programs will be made available to OIEC to help promote innovative teaching and learning practices. As part of these programs, OIEC schools will have access to the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network, which is the largest online teacher and school leader professional networking community in the world with more than 4 million members worldwide. 

OIEC will have its own community area within the Partners in Learning Network to allow for collaboration targeted across the Catholic Schools community. In addition, select OIEC schools will participate in the Microsoft Innovative Schools program and will be given additional resources to help promote teaching and learning innovation.

Office 365 for education will be available this summer. More information and sign-up opportunities are available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/education/school-services.aspx#fbid=vVW9nOnxAjA.

Tralcom will be the supporting technology partner. More information on Tralcom’s services can be found at http://www.tralcom.com/eng/index.eng.htm.

More information about Microsoft’s customer success stories can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/customerspotlight.

More information about Microsoft Office 365 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/education/school-services.aspx#fbid=FhNP1ga4j_6.

More information on Microsoft’s global education programs can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/education/ww.

More about the Catholic International Education Office can be found at http://www.infoiec.org/index.jsp.

About Tralcom

Founded in 2001, Tralcom Inc (Tralcom Europa SL & Transaction Language Co, SA) is an international company with headquarters in Mexico, which has more than 1.3 million users of its interactive classroom solution (www.classroomcoordinator.com).

About the Catholic International Education Office

Founded in 1952 in Lucerne (Switzerland) the Catholic International Education Office (OIEC) is a non-governmental organization representing world-wide Catholic education as a NGO. The main mission is to promote education for all; to express the active presence of the Church in the world, especially in education to the service of the cultures of the world; to affirm, in the human community of the nations, its will of collaboration to education in all its forms; to promote the Catholic school throughout the world and the training of its teachers as Christian teachers; to fight against illiteracy; to promote an education for all of quality. It groups the national secretariats of Catholic education from each member country (104 countries), organized in five world regions: Africa, America, Europe, Asia and Middle East and North Africa and has the headquarters for General Secretariat established in Brussels (Belgium). OIEC maintains a permanent representation at the Vatican, ONU, UNESCO, FAO & European Union.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wa sh . — May 24, 2012 — Aboitiz Jebsen Co. Inc. (Abojeb), dB Wizards Inc. and Microsoft Philippines recently announced a three-way partnership that will enable Abojeb to meet the needs of its organization and stay competitive in its field by enhancing its crewing system with Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

This partnership is a renewal and extension of the relationship that started 10 years ago when Abojeb first tapped dB Wizards to develop its crewing system. After maximizing the usage of the system, both technically and functionally, Abojeb realized the pressing need to upgrade its crewing system to address the many changes in the business rules and its business models, as well as to stay competitive. This paved the way to the company’s most recent adoption of SQL Server 2012.

“The company’s move from the existing platform to this sustainable system architecture offered by Microsoft Corp. allows for the accommodation of the complexity and additional functionality requirements in our operations,” said Bjorn Jebsen, chairman of the Board, Aboitiz Jebsen Co. Inc. “We evaluated various providers and applications and chose dB Wizards based on overall company stability, technical expertise and its relationship with Microsoft to allow us to use the company’s newest version of SQL Server.”

“We are happy that more and more Filipino companies such as Abojeb are realizing the value of making sound IT investments,” said John Bessey, managing director, Microsoft Philippines. “This is a major step for Abojeb and we, together with dB Wizards, are committed to ensuring that it maximizes this investment, ultimately making its operations more streamlined and its people more efficient,”

Abojeb is a company that provides ship management, crew management, training and other fully integrated maritime services to shipping companies worldwide. Abojeb services the maritime industry by efficiently managing its shipping and crewing system, with the objective of answering the specific needs of its key stakeholders — its business partners, ship owners and managers worldwide as well as more than 7,000 Filipino seafarers.

A key element most useful to the Abojeb partnership is the tight relationship with Microsoft. As solutions partner, dB Wizards designed the system on the Microsoft platform, taking advantage of SQL Server 2012 advancements in scalability, security and reporting, making possible the major enhancement to Abojeb’s crewing system.

“With Abojeb being one of our first customers, we are delighted to be chosen once again by Abojeb as its partner of choice for this project,” said Pocholo Reyes, dB Wizards managing director.

dB Wizards, a leading IT organization, provides world-class solutions and services to enable customers to achieve their business objectives. It takes pride in being a 100 percent Filipino-owned corporation, and an award-winning company, earning the title Systems Integrator Partner of the Year in 2011 and 2008. The value-add it brings to the partnership with Abojeb are its 13 years of experience in application development discipline, change management and SLA-based support via its manage service practice. All of these are valuable in its co-development effort to train Abojeb’s IT team.

Through partnerships such as this, Microsoft is making its products and innovations more accessible and available to companies, organizations and corporations in the country.

“With its successful track record of 10 years in information and communication technology, dB Wizards is a good choice of partner to work with,” Bessey said. “dB Wizards brings a wealth of experience to the table. And one important thing that Microsoft believes in is that we are dependent on our partners for our success.”

More information on the partnership between the Aboitiz Jensen and Microsoft is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight Newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash. – May 23, 2012 – Today, 24/7 Media, WPP’s marketing technology company, and Microsoft Advertising announced an extensive partnership to support their customers in the rapidly changing digital advertising marketplace. As a result of this agreement, that brings together two of the largest players in the advertising industry, clients of both companies will benefit from markedly enhanced scale, optimization and automation. The global online ad market is estimated to exceed $98 billion in 2012.*

“This is an exciting day for 24/7 Media, WPP and our clients globally,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and CEO of 24/7 Media. “In partnering with Microsoft, one of our largest and most strategic clients, we are creating a very powerful suite of capabilities that rivals any other offering available today in digital marketing.”

“We’re very pleased to be able to strike this partnership with 24/7,” said Rik van der Kooi, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising. “Our mission is to provide extraordinary experiences for consumers and effective solutions for our digital marketing partners. Marketers are telling us they need to get their hands on premium quality inventory at-scale by reducing friction, which is what this deal will do. And unlocking new demand for publishers’ inventory through our Exchange will similarly create new value in the market.”

The agreement consists of four main components that will help strengthen advertising technology stacks and expand opportunities for the marketer and publisher clients of both WPP and Microsoft Advertising.

Specifically:

• The Microsoft Advertising Exchange will become the exclusive third-party ad exchange offered by Real Media Group, a business unit of 24/7 Media, to its 24/7 Open AdStream clients. Access to and management of the Exchange will be available via the 24/7 Open AdStream user interface and significant integration between the platforms. The arrangement provides 24/7 Open AdStream clients with seamless access to the Microsoft Advertising Exchange, which is designed specifically for the needs of premium publishers. 

• The Microsoft Media Network will become the only non-WPP demand source granted programmatic access to Real Media Group’s premium inventory. Marketers and agencies will benefit from having this quality advertising inventory from premium publishers available for purchase in conjunction with Microsoft’s data and ad offerings. At the same time, Real Media Group’s publishers will benefit from the addition of Microsoft’s high-quality advertiser base. Real Media Group may also use the Microsoft Advertising Exchange to provide exchange services to publishers who are part of the 24/7 Access audience activation channel, which has the fifth largest reach in the US and select other markets.

• 24/7 Connect, a powerful new tool that WPP agencies and clients around the world are using to simplify and automate their media planning, will include the full catalog of Microsoft’s ad offerings. In addition, WPP agencies and clients will be able to programmatically create media plans that include Microsoft Advertising offerings.  This will enable a richer set of solutions for the advertising needs of WPP agencies and clients, while also providing increased monetization of Microsoft’s publisher partner inventory.

• Microsoft, 24/7 Media, and WPP are also expanding their existing relationship around Microsoft’s Atlas ad server, which is a preferred ad server of WPP.  Microsoft and 24/7 Media will work together toward a zero discrepancy solution between Atlas and 24/7 Open AdStream. 24/7 Media will join the Atlas Technology Partner Alliance, supporting the integration between 24/7 Trader, 24/7 Media’s demand side platform used by WPP, and Microsoft’s Atlas ad server.

*GroupM, April 2012

About Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers and publishers with media, tools and services to help drive deep and profitable engagement with their audiences. This includes a media network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the world; global technology platforms and tools that enable easy planning and management of campaigns and content; and services that help untangle the complexities of digital media to get more value from marketing and content investments. Microsoft Advertising makes buying and selling media simple, smart and cost-effective across media and devices in the Microsoft network of properties and beyond. More information is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About 24/7 Media

24/7 Media, Inc. is a leader in digital marketing technology, serving advertisers, agencies and digital publishers worldwide. The 24/7 technology platform spans every digital channel, providing users with unprecedented control and consolidated data analysis. This technology powers two specialized business units: Real Media Group helps marketing organizations engage their audiences with superior precision, transparency and return on investment. The group also helps digital publishers monetize their properties and manage advertising operations more effectively. Media Innovation Group provides advertisers and agencies with strategic consulting and implementation services that deliver competitive advantage in fields being transformed by technology.

Formerly 24/7 Real Media, the organization has been in the forefront of media innovation for fifteen years. 24/7 Media is a WPP Digital company headquartered in New York with 18 offices in a dozen countries. For more information, please visit www.247media.com.

24/7 Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

NEW YORK — May 23 , 2012 — Marking the 10th anniversary of the Microsoft Imagine Cup student technology competition, Microsoft Corp. today announced the teams that will head to the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in July in Sydney, to showcase their innovative ideas for using technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. As the winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup competitions, these students represent the future of technology innovation and entrepreneurialism.

Student teams from 75 countries have advanced to the finals with projects that tackle humanitarian issues including health, accessibility, the environment, education and more. They will compete at the Worldwide Finals event, July 6–10, for $175,000 (U.S.) in cash prizes in categories including Software Design, Game Design: Phone, Game Design: Xbox/Windows, the Windows Phone Challenge sponsored by Nokia, the IT Challenge, the Windows Azure Challenge, the Kinect Fun Labs Challenge sponsored by Microsoft Studios, and the Windows Metro Style App Challenge sponsored by Windows. In addition, today Microsoft is announcing two new awards for the Worldwide Finalists that are sponsored by The Coca-Cola Co.: Environmental Sustainability and Health Awareness. All Worldwide Finalist teams are invited to apply for these awards.

“During the past decade, students have taken the lead in adopting new technologies and championing social transformation,” said Moorthy Uppaluri, general manager, Academic Programs at Microsoft. “Ten years ago, we created Imagine Cup with the idea that students can change the world — and every year they continue to demonstrate their passion and creativity in creating technology that makes the world a better place.”

More on the Environmental Sustainability and Health Awareness Awards

Microsoft and Coca-Cola are also announcing a collaboration to encourage the next generation of young technologists and entrepreneurs to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to improve the environment and healthy living. Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalist teams whose projects target these topics will be eligible to compete for the new Imagine Cup 2012 Environmental Sustainability Award and Health Awareness Award, sponsored by Coca-Cola.

“Given the scale and complexity of today’s issues, it’s challenging for one business or even one industry to make a difference alone,” said Guy Wollaert, chief technical officer, The Coca-Cola Co. “Coca-Cola’s support of Imagine Cup provides an additional venue for students to be recognized for their innovation in addressing the world’s toughest environmental and health-related issues.”

The winning team for each award will be announced at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney and each team will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000 (U.S.). More information can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.

A Decade of Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup has inspired a generation, with 1.65 million students from 190 countries participating in the competition during the past decade. Since last year, students from 29 new regions and countries, including Haiti, Rwanda, the Republic of Kosovo and Myanmar, have registered for the competition.

This year marks the first time that the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals event will take place in Australia.

During the first Imagine Cup in 2003, there were a little more than 1,000 registrants from 25 countries, with only 15 finalist teams competing at the Worldwide Finals in Barcelona. Tu Nguyen, from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, won first prize with a Pocket PC application designed to bridge the language gap between English-speaking waiters and Vietnamese-speaking chefs. Like many Imagine Cup alumni, Nguyen has gone on to become an entrepreneur and innovator; he was recognized in 2006 by the Midlands Business Journal as one of Omaha’s top 40 executives under 40 years of age, and is now chief technology officer of DocLanding, an online document management provider.

Dreaming Big and Creating Real-World Solutions: Imagine Cup Grants

To extend the impact of Imagine Cup, last year Microsoft launched the Imagine Cup Grants program, a three-year, $3 million investment by Microsoft to help students turn their ideas into reality. The first year of grant recipients were announced in January, including team Lifelens (United States), which developed a Windows Phone application that can detect the presence of malaria through a blood sample. The team is using the financial and in-kind support from the grant to develop its technology into a platform that uses Windows 8-based tablets and addresses other pathological diseases in addition to malaria.

“The Imagine Cup opens up students’ eyes to nontraditional technology applications that can address global issues and enable teams to brainstorm innovative ways to solve these problems,” said Wilson To, on behalf of the team.

More information about the Lifelens project is available at http://lifelensproject.com/blog.

All the 2012 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalists announced today will be eligible to apply for the Imagine Cup Grants program this year.

Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finalists

The 2012 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalist teams are:

More information about Imagine Cup is available at the Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom and on the Imagine Cup blog.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 23, 2012 — TechCrunch Disrupt winner Soluto, a home PC remote-management startup, has switched to Windows Azure to help deliver its tool to more than 3 million PCs worldwide, maintain its market momentum and uncap its business potential. By adopting Windows Azure, Soluto solved scaling issues that arose after it won the worldwide competition for IT startups.

Soluto uses Windows Azure table storage to save PC data, deliver it to users and process it with data from other machines. Soluto users generate tens of millions of data transactions every day, making Soluto one of the largest consumers of Windows Azure resources among startups worldwide.

“Using Windows Azure, we have the capacity to process hundreds of terabytes of data,” said Tomer Dvir, co-founder and CEO of Soluto. “That releases our growth potential and gives us the agility to watch the market evolve, learn from our customers, enhance our products and develop a profitable model.”

In May 2010, Dvir and Ishay Green publicly launched Soluto at the inaugural TechCrunch Disrupt. Soluto won Best of Show, and suddenly the company had media coverage in global outlets such as The New York Times, CNN and the BBC. In the month after TechCrunch Disrupt, almost 1 million people downloaded Soluto.

“Our server environment couldn't scale up fast enough,” said Roee Adler, chief product officer at Soluto. “We needed a better, more flexible solution, but we still wanted to avoid the risk of a big IT investment.”

The team expected that transferring a live application to the cloud would be challenging, and it quickly determined that it could support Soluto most effectively with Windows Azure. “Because we could work with familiar tools, such as the .NET Framework and Visual Studio, we knew that we could get to market much faster with Windows Azure than we would with Amazon,” Adler said.

After migrating to Windows Azure, Soluto has grown rapidly. By October 2011, the application had 3 million downloads. Demand can spike by as much as 30 million transactions per day, but the Soluto team can quickly and easily scale Windows Azure to avoid any break in service.

“With Windows Azure, we have complete elasticity and endless scalability,” Dvir said. “We are ready to serve any peak in consumer demand.”

For more customer success stories, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/customerspotlight.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.