Microsoft has stepped up its support of the Moscow IT-industry. This week the US-based IT giant has opened a new $15 million technology centre, and also announced that it is to invest $1m in research at Moscow State University over the next three years.
This is the third tech centre established by Microsoft in Russia. The first, which opened in Moscow in November 2009, was the company’s first technology centre in the CEE region, while the second was established in Novosibirsk two years ago. Microsoft provided half the $15m spent on the new facility, with the firm’s partners raising the rest.
The new Moscow tech centre is more spacious and can support more advanced equipment and solutions, in particular mobile, cloud and big data technologies. Its main purpose is to allow Microsoft clients and partners to test run their solutions in an up-to-date environment.
“The active involvement of a wide range of partners has allowed us to create a place where practically any IT infrastructure in Russia can be modelled and where the viability of any solution or development can be tested,” the Microsoft Technology Centre’s director Oleg Karacharov commented. “MTC services are free for our clients and partners, who can use them to save time and money when developing and testing their new solutions, and in doing so minimise risks.”
Microsoft also confirmed this week that it will provide a $1m grant to Moscow State University over the next three years. The money will be used to support laboratories at the forefront of big data and computer vision research.
Tony Hey, the vice-president of Microsoft Research Connections, explained: “Microsoft Research recognises the advantages of working with the world’s leading universities – Berkeley in the USA, Cambridge in the UK and now MSU in Russia. We are planning to invest $1m over the next three years to support talented students and scientists in Russia, who we hope will be able to achieve great things with our help.”
Cooperation between leading IT corporations and universities has become something of a trend in Russia. Last week Yandex and Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) announced that they plan to open a computer science faculty, while Mail.ru Group supports a research and education centre at Bauman Moscow State Technical University. ABBYY and IBM also support computer linguistics departments at the Russian State Humanities University and the Moscow Physics and Technology Institute.
This article first appeared in East-West Digital News, the international online resource on Russian digital industries.