Microsoft Pledges $2 Million to Japan Quake, Tsunami Victims

By

To contribute to the ongoing worldwide relief efforts for the victims of Japan’s 8.9 Earthquake and 13-foot tsunami that struck the Northeast region of the country on Friday, March 11, software giant Microsoft  is taking a number of steps to relieve the country, including an initial commitment of $2 million. This includes $250,000 in cash and $1.75 million in software and services to help those hit by the natural tragedy.

Besides money, the company is also taking other steps to ensure the safety of its employees and their families and assessing all facilities for any impact. Microsoft maintains an office in Sendai that was hardest hit by the Earthquake followed by Tsunami.

To get local businesses up and running, Microsoft is providing free incident support to help customers and partners impacted by the earthquake get their operations back up and running. The company is offering free temporary software licenses to all impacted customers and partners as well as lead governments, non-profit partners and institutions involved in disaster response efforts.

Additionally, it is making a cloud-based disaster response communications portal, based on Windows Azure available to governments and non-profits to enable them to communicate between agencies and directly with citizens. Plus, Exchange Online will be made available at no cost for 90 days to business customers in Japan whose communications and collaboration infrastructure may be affected, Microsoft said. The company is hoping that these small gestures will help them resume operations more quickly while their existing systems return to normal.

Furthermore, Microsoft’s Bing Maps is currently providing imagery of the area and is working on securing before and after imagery for a disaster response mapping application.

Other major organizations, listed on the Microsoft site, offering support to help the victims of the Japan Earthquake and pacific tsunami include NetHope, a collaboration of the world’s leading humanitarian response organizations; the American Red Cross; World Vision; Save the Children; International Medical Corps.; Mercy Corps.; and AidMatrix.


Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

TechZone360 Contributor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

8 Underrated Features of Your Mobile Device You Probably Didn't Know About

By: Contributing Writer    11/21/2023

It is easy to get lost in all the new phone releases when multiple happen yearly. Consequently, most new functions go unnoticed because people do not …

Read More

Navigating the Launch: A Step-by-Step Guide to Bringing Your Product to Market

By: Contributing Writer    11/15/2023

Embarking on the journey to bring a new product into the marketplace is an exhilarating adventure that blends the thrill of innovation with the meticu…

Read More

Running MySQL on AWS: Step by Step

By: Contributing Writer    11/15/2023

MySQL on AWS is the deployment of the MySQL database system on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. MySQL is one of the most popular open-source …

Read More

4 Easy Responsive Image Techniques

By: Contributing Writer    11/15/2023

Responsive images are a fundamental component in responsive web design. They adapt to the size of the user's screen, delivering the best user experien…

Read More

5 Types of Documentation Tools and How to Choose

By: Contributing Writer    11/9/2023

Documentation tools are specialized software applications designed to help you create, manage, and publish digital documents. These tools are essentia…

Read More