Gen-i, Microsoft and Infosys are working together to meet Australasian market demand for a single, flexible source of aggregated hybrid cloud services. The combined offering will allow businesses to subscribe and operate their messaging, communication and collaboration services and other relevant enterprise workloads from the cloud.

The entire cloud offering will be powered by Microsoft's products, complemented by Infosys IP built on Microsoft technologies and Gen-i's deep experience, knowledge and understanding of the local market.

The partnership will bring together Microsoft's Business Productivity Suite (Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync 2010) and other enterprise workloads, Infosys's Cloud Ecosystem Integration services as well as its deep domain expertise, and Gen-i's coverage and service to deliver highly reliable, secure and cost effective cloud services to Australasian businesses.

In bringing together the best of the world's cloud technology and professional services providers with a leading cloud provider for the Australasian market, Gen-i clients will gain the unique capability to seamlessly setup, manage and operate the most popular cloud workloads.

Part of Gen-i's Cloud Services portfolio, the service will be available from a variety of platforms – including third party IaaS providers and Gen-i's ReadyCloud platform.

Clients will be able to quickly gain the efficiencies of cloud, while meeting compliance requirements (such as data sovereignty) and enjoying enterprise grade management services.

"This new partnership will provide our clients with greater flexibility to achieve the right mix of technology solutions, and the right level of performance, security and compliance, at the right price," says Jo Allison, Gen-i General Manager Marketing and Operations.

"Our clients will gain access to hybrid cloud services and content from a single extensible source, taking advantage of optimum licensing opportunities, while retaining a single point of management responsibility."

Microsoft NZ Managing Director Paul Muckleston says: "Gen-i and Infosys will deliver Microsoft Business Productivity suite (Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) workloads in a locally hosted private cloud and will also offer hybrid cloud scenarios leveraging the best of global public cloud with in-country private cloud."

"The combined offering will allow businesses to subscribe and operate their messaging, communication and collaboration services and other relevant enterprise workloads from the Cloud. The entire Cloud offering will be powered by Microsoft’s products complemented with Infosys IP built on Microsoft technologies."

"This partnership will bring Gen-i's local knowledge together with the international strength of Infosys to cater to the needs of the Australasian market. We are excited to be partnering with Gen-i and Infosys to drive this opportunity and it is clear that they will be key to our success with the cloud in the coming future."

With this offering, the clients in Australasian market can reap the benefits of global best practices derived out of the strategic cloud partnership between Infosys and Microsoft.

Infosys Geo Head, Australia & New Zealand, Jackie Korhonen says: “New Zealand has been the incubation hub of technology innovation for the global market. This offering by the Infosys-Gen-i-Microsoft consortium will lead the way on how messaging, communication, and collaboration services will be consumed on cloud by clients in the future."

Gen-i, Microsoft and Infosys are currently working towards finalising a detailed service model, to be launched in the next few months.