Microsoft is Offering 120,000 Reasons to Kick Off Your Cloud Business Today
Do you have an idea for a cloud app? Microsoft wants to help you build your cloud app in the Microsoft Cloud thanks to a special program called BizSpark Plus.
You may be aware of the Microsoft BizSpark program. If not, BizSpark is a program that Microsoft has enacted to help small businesses get off the ground by providing them with free Microsoft software. BizSpark Plus takes things a step further and provides up to $10,000 per month in Azure services. This equates to $120,000 of free Azure services per year.
According to Steve Guggenheimer’s Blog on MSDN, the BizSpark Plus program will begin on July 1st 2015. In order to qualify for BizSpark Plus, startup businesses must reach out to a local business accelerator in their area.
Guggenheimer writes, “We are partnering with over 150 startup accelerators in 47 countries including Techstars, ERA, MassChallenge, Seedcamp, and 1871.”
Guggenheimer adds, “These organizations are in the trenches, providing the marketing and business support that early stage companies need to be successful. The offer expands our existing BizSpark Plus program which, in addition to open source friendly Azure, provides free software, developer tools, and technical support to help startups be successful.”
Microsoft mentions that the new BizSpark Plus program came as a result of direct feedback from startups themselves. The BizSpark Plus program is designed to get cloud based software and services in the hands of your customers as quickly as possible. Microsoft is betting that if you use Azure to deploy those services, you will likely stay within the Microsoft Cloud ecosystem for further releases.
That seems like a pretty safe bet for Microsoft. Getting a $120,000 a year in free cloud services has us thinking; what would you do with that much prepaid time in the Microsoft Cloud? Tell us in our comments section below.
