Microsoft has announced that it will give non profits groups $1 billion worth of cloud services in a in a three year charitable scheme designed to ‘advance the public good’ and solve some of the world’s toughest problems.
The majority of the provisions will be free or discounted cloud services, namely Azure computing power and data storage and Office 365 corporate programmes and other products. The voluntary groups, charities and non-profit organisations will have a global spread, according to Microsoft President Brad Smith, writing on the company blog.
Other beneficiaries will include universities that qualify for free Azure services. There is also a plan to invest in organisations that supply Internet connectivity to the developing world. The goal of the new program is to make 20 investments in 15 countries, Smith said.
Initially Microsoft aims to serve 70,000 non profit organisations over a three year period beginning immediately. The target is to increase Azure’s use at research universities and achieve a 50% extension on an existing programme that already reaches 600 academic institutions.
Microsoft’s new philanthropic arm and its business development unit are to collaborate on ‘white space’, investing time and money in order to make use of unused television airwaves, aggregating the frequencies to create the networks for Internet connectivity.
In an example of how the new scheme could work, Microsoft has funded Kenyan organisation outfit Mawingu (the Swahili word for cloud) which provides Internet connectivity to schools and small businesses in areas without electricity supplies. Microsoft CEO Nadella visited Mawingu in July to as part of the publicity for the release of Windows 10.
The news comes a month after Microsoft rebranded its charity work as Microsoft Philanthropies and CEO Satya Nadella is currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The timing of the announcement could raise the profile the company’s cloud service businesses. Academia, a key segment branding software and tools among students and educators, is dominated by Microsoft rivals Apple and Alphabet, according to Bloomberg.
“The most fundamental way we advance our mission is through technology that reaches people through the market,” said Smith, “part of the history of the company was to make sure our technology was reaching everybody.”