Published on the 02/05/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
Microsoft Azure has strengthened its Big Compute offering with the acquisition of its partner and successful New Zealand technology company GreenButton…
Microsoft Corporation has snapped up the winner of the 2013 NZ Hi-Tech Awards ‘Hi Tech Emerging Company’ category GreenButton. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Microsoft said it plans to retain and invest in the GreenButton team and infrastructure, which will remain in New Zealand after the acquisition.
GreenButton specialises in high performance cloud computing, offering its customers end-to-end management of compute-intensive workloads in the cloud. Some of its largest customers include US-based companies Pixar, NASA and Boeing.
The company was founded in 2006 and is already a Microsoft Azure partner. Founder and CEO of GreenButton Scott Houston underlined the “incredibly supportive relationship” Green Button has had with Microsoft for many years and said the purchase is “great news” for the GreenButton team, their investors and other New Zealand companies.
The acquisition will see the company join the Microsoft Azure family of cloud services and launch a new integrated service with Azure later in the year. Green Button’s existing service is no longer available to new customers. Microsoft said in a press release that the acquisition “will further bolster Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud offering, underscoring the company’s commitment to Big Compute in the cloud”.
Mike Neil, director of program management for Microsoft Azure, said: “Data and computation are driving businesses today – but as data volume, variety and velocity continue to explode, our customers need help processing massive amounts of information and running compute-intensive simulations for a growing number of applications.
“This need is met by Big Compute, and that is why today we are excited to be welcoming GreenButton into the Azure family. With GreenButton’s tools integrated into Microsoft Azure, we will provide solutions that allow anyone to harness the power of the cloud.”
Paul Muckleston, managing director of Microsoft New Zealand said the acquisition is a clear indication that New Zealand is producing world-class, scalable technology solutions. He said Microsoft New Zealand invests in growing tech talent and to date more than 700 New Zealand-based companies, including GreenButton, have benefitted from its BizSpark programme.
