MS engages Chinese OS firm for cloud

PCWorld.

China Standard Software, Microsoft's Chinese partner, has co-developed a Linux operating system with a defence lab, China's National University of Defence Technology, and the operating system, called 'NeoKylin', has been approved by a number of government ministries.

As part of the deal, Microsoft and CS2C will co-sponsor a technology lab in Beijing, focusing on developing and testing cloud products, according to Information Age.

According to a statement from Microsoft, the lab will focus on the certification of CS2C's Linux operating system for Microsoft systems, as well as ensuring that CS2C's software is fully supported by the Hyper-V architecture.

A recent Gartner survey found that Chinese CIOs are more likely to spend their IT budgets on cloud computing than their European and North American counterparts.

The survey found that 55% of respondents in China plan to spend more than 10% of their IT budgets on cloud computing by 2013. The same report also found more than half of Asian CIOs expected their budgets to increase in 2011, compared to 39% of CIOs worldwide.

“The significant difference in China is the leapfrogging to the cloud,” he said. “Because of its rapid growth, we're seeing it much faster than in any other part of the world. So it accelerates the need for interoperability,” reports The Seattle times.

While Microsoft has many partnerships in China, this is the first time it has partnered there with the provider of what's essentially a competing platform.