Gavriella Schuster (Microsoft)
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been named a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP) partner, in a boost to the provider's digital transformation agenda.
Launched in 2018, Microsoft’s Azure Expert MSP program recognises partners with expertise and capability to drive next-generation managed services necessary for digital transformation initiatives.
“As the preferred transformation partner to customers looking to embrace the cloud, TCS has been investing in building close alliances with industry-leading platform and solution providers,” said Raman Venkatraman, vice president and global head of alliances and technology at TCS.
"We are happy to receive this distinction as an Azure Expert MSP and look forward to our continued work with Microsoft to make our customers smarter, lighter, and faster."
Although this is a Microsoft initiative, the assessment for acceptance into the program was carried out by an independent third-party adding creditability to the selection process.
The third-party performed an audit and reviewed multiple customer references from TCS, including the consultancy’s managed services, people, processes, and technologies to confirm that it met or exceeded requirements such as optimising operations, delivering lifetime value to customers, and enhancing Azure’s service offerings.
"Microsoft has a long-standing relationship with TCS, and our shared commitment to drive business results in the digital age are strongly aligned,” said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president of One Commercial Partner at Microsoft.
"As an Azure Expert MSP, TCS has demonstrated its ability to help organisations optimise their cloud capabilities and take advantage of the flexibility and enterprise-grade reliability that Azure provides."
TCS is a long-time regional partner of Microsoft occupying the highest-level in the vendor's partner network, Microsoft Gold Competency Partner.
In fact, one of the biggest Azure implementations globally was done through TCS for the regional airliner, Malaysian Airlines, which was completed in 2017.
A large and complex project for TCS, the airline’s core mission-critical data centre infrastructure and myriad applications were moved to a hybrid-cloud model operating 80 per cent on Microsoft Azure and 20 per cent on a private cloud.
This project made Malaysia Airlines the world’s first full-service airline to completely replace its existing data centres and adopt full-scale cloud solutions for its entire range of nearly 200 applications running mission-critical commercial, operations and corporate systems.
On completion of this project, the airline reported excellent results, including an operational cost reduction, productivity improvements up to 80 per cent for core applications, application delivery times accelerated from days to hours in some cases, enhanced security and compliance capability and reporting, to name a few.
