Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is adopting Windows Azure cloud technology to manage its Smart TV infrastructure. Samsung, which provides Smart TV service in 120 countries around the world, hopes to significantly reduce costs and increase capacity to meet its growing customer base and higher productivity.
Not wanting to be dependent on specific suppliers, the company needed a solution that could support ongoing, reliable service and its continual increase in traffic. It chose the Windows Azure as the service infrastructure because it offered the required reliability to meet its mission-critical needs and its planned expansion of service.
"After extensive testing, Windows Azure is the only cloud offering that met our exacting conditions," said an official at Samsung Electronics' Visual Display Business Division.
Compared with the cost of expanding its in-house IT services, Samsung achieved a tenfold cost reduction by choosing to manage its infrastructure in the cloud. In addition, Windows Azure enables Samsung to secure its server and storage resources and free up time to focus on providing high-quality software and services to its customers.
The company has observed greater speed of service in Asia, where it sees most of its Smart TV traffic.
"Windows Azure gives Samsung the ability to focus on its business rather than having its technical team deal with problem-solving and troubleshooting issues," said Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of Windows Azure at Microsoft.