Microsoft intends to invest tens of millions of dollars into the research and development program – an agreement has been signed by Conor Lenihan, Vice President for international partnership development at Skolkovo Foundation, and Kirill Tatarinov, President of Microsoft Business Solutions, at a joint press conference.
Moscow, May 21, 2012 — Today, Conor Lenihan, Skolkovo Foundation Vice President for international partnership development and Kirill Tatarinov, President of Microsoft Business Solutions signed an agreement for opening Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo.
«Microsoft is one of the strategic partners of Skolkovo. The huge international experience and expertise of the company make a significant contribution to the development of the Russian IT industry and the country’s economy as a whole», stated Conor Lenihan, - «Today we are happy to announce the opening of Microsoft research and development centre in the Skolkovo Innovation Centre and the extension of co-operation in joint applied research activities».
As a part of the activities at Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo, specialists will be engaged in the development of software solutions for Microsoft Dynamics that will be supplied throughout the world. The development of technologies for the Cloud platform in addition to classical products will be one of the top priorities for Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo. One of the key principles of the development of these products will be the creation of a new architecture and the design of a flexible structure and functionality of products to meet requirements and demands of different countries around the world.
Microsoft plans to invest tens of millions of dollars into the program, contributing to the development of the IT industry and innovation economy as a whole.
Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo is planned to involve over 100 IT specialists and researchers by 2015. In addition, the centre will serve as the basis for joint applied research and development, attracting experts from Microsoft world-wide. The center will also actively co-operate with the Skolkovo Open University (OpUS) and the University of Science and Technology (Skolkovo Tech), and other leading Russian higher educational establishments.
«Russia is one of the strategically important countries in the world arena and is a center of research and development activity and innovation», said Kirill Tatarinov, President of Microsoft Business Solutions, - «We are proud to open Microsoft R&D centre in Skolkovo. This is a new page of our co-operation and joint research and development activities in Russia, which will help unlock the huge potential of Russian developers in the creation of top-level software products».
Plans to locate the Microsoft development center in Skolkovo were unveiled on November 1, 2010 at a meeting of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with Viktor Vekselberg. This was when an agreement for strategic co-operation of the two companies was signed. Soon after, without waiting for the construction of buildings at the “Innograd”, Microsoft began the establishment of a developer team in Russia, which will be involved in the Skolkovo center. A successful result of this activity was the development of Cloud Numerics, released in the spring of 2012. Cloud Numerics is one of the world’s first mathematical libraries tailored to be used in the Cloud; research and commercial organizations will be able to use it to cut their bulk data analysis and experimental simulation costs. Skolkovo residents have begun active use of the technology on the special terms that provide for free access to Windows Azure resources. This library will help them create their own solutions.
About Cloud Numerics
Cloud Numerics is the first Cloud projects created by engineers from the Russian team of Microsoft developers.
The initiative was launched with the signing of the agreement by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in November 2010. Without waiting for the construction of buildings at the Skolkovo “Innograd”, Microsoft started to create the team.
Cloud Numerics is one of the world’s first mathematical libraries tailored for Cloud use. Research and commercial organizations will be able to use it to cut their bulk data analysis and experimental simulation costs.
In April 2012, Microsoft presented Cloud Numerics to Skolkovo students and startups. Skolkovo residents started to use the technology on the special terms, which provide for free access to Windows Azure resources. This library will help them create their own solutions, for instance, in financial simulation.
Information about Skolkovo Foundation
Skolkovo Foundation for Development of the Center for Development and Commercialization of New Technologies is a non-profit organization created on the initiative of RF President Dmitry Medvedev in September 2010. The Fund’s objective is to mobilize Russian resources in today’s applied research and the creation of a favourable environment for scientific development in five priority directions of technological development: power engineering and energy efficiency, space, biomedicine, nuclear and computer technologies. The project provides for the creation of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SkTech), research institutes, business incubator, centre for technology transfer and commercialization, R&D centres; locating representative offices of foreign companies within the “Innograd” territory, construction of residential houses and social infrastructure facilities as well as further propagation of the efficient mode to cover other innovative regions of Russia. The Skolkovo innovation centre’s activities are regulated by a special law that grants special economic conditions to its residents.
Information about Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft corporation is the global leader in software manufacturing, provision of services and development of Internet technologies for personal computers and servers.
Microsoft corporation develops and releases a broad range of software products. They include desktop and network operating systems, server applications for client-server media, desktop business applications and office applications for users, online programs and games, Internet surfing and development tools. Besides, Microsoft offers online services, publishes books on computers, manufactures peripheral facilities for computers, conducts research and development of new computer technologies. Microsoft products are sold in more than 80 countries of the world; they have been translated into more than 45 languages (including Russian) and are compatible with most PC platforms.
Microsoft products are licensed in the Russian Federation (just as in all other European states) by Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (MIOL). All references to license transactions with Microsoft have been made by MIOL.
Microsoft representative office has been present in Russia since November 1992 (from July 2004 — Microsoft Rus LLC). It is in charge of software promotion, partnership development, introduction of products, localization of advanced solutions and development of the Russian information technology market.
For more information on Microsoft and its products, please visit Microsoft web servers: http://www.microsoft.com/rus (Russian) and http://www.microsoft.com (English).
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