The Ukraine government will continue to be able to run its digital infrastructure through the Microsoft Cloud for free in 2023, the tech giant confirmed today.
In a blog post, Microsoft president Brad Smith said that technical support will continue to be available to the embattled country and could add up to as much as $100 million for the year and bring the cost of Redmond’s financial support for Ukraine to more than $400 million across all software systems.
Microsoft’s support was made clear when Smith appeared in the company of Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, at the press conference at the annual web meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.
Companies like Amazon, Apple, and Salesforce donated millions of dollars in humanitarian support, and SpaceX’s Starlink – with the help of the US government – has kept broadband satellite services available. Internet access is a critical component of the country’s military defense.
Speaking on the topic, Brad Smith shared that Ukraine’s continued defense depends in part on a critical digital alliance of countries, companies and nonprofits. He added that by dispersing digital infrastructure in the public cloud, Microsoft and others are supporting critical Ukrainian services through data centers across Europe.According to him, this is crucial for “protecting the resilience and security of Ukraine’s data and digital services.
Microsoft is helping with Ukraine’s ongoing cyber security protection. Its Threat Intelligence Center last month noted a novel ransomware called Prestige that was targeting transportation and logistics industries in Ukraine and Poland.