Microsoft cloud solutions help customers cut costs, generate new revenue streams and provide added services to end users.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2011 — This week’s edition of Businessweek includes a story about the shift taking place in the development and deployment of applications and services by using cloud computing to cut costs, streamline IT management and respond more quickly to changes in end-user demand. Microsoft is cited as one of the companies taking the lead in this area and in moving organizations from their existing operations and services to the cloud and taking advantage of increased efficiency and new opportunities along the way.
3M’s Visual Attention Service (VAS) is a Web-based scanning tool that digitally evaluates the impact of creative and graphic designs and provides a map to help guide the design process. 3M made the VAS globally available to its customers by hosting it on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.