Johannesburg, 07 May 2012
Software giant Microsoft is giving away $60 000-worth of space in the cloud to start-ups across the globe, and SA is included in the first wave of beneficiaries.
The company is offering $60 000 - or R505 784 - to every start-up software developer that qualifies in free hosting space in a bid to spur innovation. The offering will be available in the next three months.
Microsoft's offer forms part of its BizSpark Plus initiative, a global programme designed to help accelerate the success of early stage start-ups. BizSpark gives start-up companies access to software development tools, connects them with key industry players, and provides marketing visibility.
The programme also includes access to Windows Azure, a cloud platform for the creation of Web applications and services. In addition, BizSpark offers technical support, business training and a network of over 2 000 partners to connect members with incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters.
Since it was established in 2008, more than 45 000 companies in over 100 countries have joined BizSpark.
Going global
Successful developers will have full access to Azure for two years, with the first year free of charge and the second year at a 50% discount, explains Clifford de Wit, developer and platform lead at Microsoft SA.
Microsoft wants to empower as many developers as possible and take South African companies global, says De Wit. He adds that the amount of start-ups Microsoft can support could run into hundreds or thousands and there is currently no limit.
De Wit says the initiative is aimed at building a vibrant local software development community in SA. He explains that developers encounter problems when they have a solution, but nowhere to host it, so Microsoft is offering free cloud time as a solution.
“We really want to give small software developers the incentive they need to not only develop local software, but also the business savvy they need to take their software to market. Ultimately, we'd like to see SA becoming an exporter, rather than an importer, of intellectual property.”
Saving money
De Wit says that, by providing access to Microsoft technology, its goal is to help start-ups grow their businesses because costs that would be spent in areas like cloud computing can now be invested elsewhere.
“What this means is these smaller businesses can focus on solving their business challenges, learning from their users, hiring more developers, investing in marketing, and promoting their businesses or finding new customers,” says De Wit.
De Wit explains that Microsoft SA has partnered with incubators that can also offer assistance, such as financial planning, to the start-up companies. The initial BizSpark Partners working on the offering in SA are Bandwidth Barn (Cape Town), SmartXchange (Durban) and the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE).
Developers' access to the offering will be determined by the incubators, says De Wit. However, the offering is aimed at companies that are under three years old and turn over less than $1 million - or R7.8 million - a year.
De Wit explains that the first three years of a company's life is usually the “make or break” period. “If you are going to make it, you'll make it big.”
Microsoft is supplying an average of 15 to 20 servers-worth of space to each start-up, says De Wit. He explains that it is difficult to quantify the exact amount of space because that depends on factors such as computing power, storage and bandwidth.
The software giant has to build data centres to host the developers, but has been putting capacity in place for about four years and is confident it has enough space, says De Wit. “This is not Mickey Mouse money... this really does cost us.”
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