Samsung Adopts Windows Azure for Smart TV Infrastructure Management

This week, Microsoft announced the addition of a new company on the list of Windows Azure customers, namely Samsung Electronics, who will be using the platform for the management of its Smart TV infrastructure.

According to Microsoft, the adoption of Windows Azure is meant to provide Samsung with the possibility to achieve significant reduction in costs, while benefiting from larger capacity to meet the demand for an increased number of users.

Samsung is currently offering Smart TV in over 120 countries all around the world, and is aiming at growing its foothold significantly.

For that, the company was looking for a solution that would provide support for ongoing, reliable service, as well as for large increase in traffic.

At the same time, the adoption of Windows Azure enables Samsung to not be dependent on specific suppliers, Microsoft explains.

The company also notes that Samsung did take other products into consideration before adopting Microsoft’s solution, but that it decided that Windows Azure would be perfect for its mission-critical needs and its planned expansion of service.

“After extensive testing, Windows Azure is the cloud offering that met our exacting conditions,” said an official at Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business Division.

By choosing the management of its infrastructure through the cloud, Samsung achieved a tenfold cost reduction.

Additionally, Windows Azure provided the company with the possibility to quickly secure needed server and storage resources and to focus on the high-quality software and services that its customers are looking to receive.

Samsung’s scalable infrastructure, including Windows Azure, will deliver a smooth, fast service to the company’s users. Moreover, the adoption of the cloud resulted in greater speed of service in Asia, where it registers most of its Smart TV traffic.

“Samsung Electronics’ Smart TV is taking advantage of the unique capabilities of Windows Azure,” said Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of Windows Azure at Microsoft. “Windows Azure gives Samsung the ability to focus on its business rather than having its technical team deal with problem-solving and troubleshooting issues.”