Mr. Tom Little reports

BELL AND MICROSOFT TEAM UP TO BRING MICROSOFT AZURE EXPRESSROUTE TO CANADIAN BUSINESS CUSTOMERS; BELL CLOUD CONNECT PROVIDES ACCESS TO MICROSOFT CANADA CLOUD SERVICES OVER BELL'S DEDICATED BROADBAND NETWORK

BCE Inc.'s Bell will be the first Canadian telecommunications provider to offer businesses access to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute. Bell customers can access Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (customer relationship management) on-line through Bell Cloud Connect, a dedicated high-speed broadband connection.

As businesses move to the cloud, they are increasingly looking for dedicated and reliable access. Bell Cloud Connect and Azure ExpressRoute connections do not travel over the public Internet, and offer higher reliability, faster speeds, lower latencies and better security than typical Internet connections.

With Bell Cloud Connect, business benefits from Canada's largest broadband Internet protocol network, offering extensive reach, capacity and scalability, 99.999-per-cent network uptime, and unmatched security to help keep their data protected.

"Bell is Canada's leader in network and data hosting with exceptional customer support offered by our expert nationwide Bell Business Markets team," said Tom Little, president of Bell Business Markets. "We are excited to add Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute to our Bell Business Cloud ecosystem, providing customers with more of the seamless integration they have come to expect. Bell's high-speed private connection to Microsoft's cloud services will help even more Canadian businesses move confidently to the cloud."

"We are thrilled to announce the opening of our Canadian data centres and are excited to welcome Bell as an Azure ExpressRoute partner," said Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Canada. "Bell's capabilities to operate enterprise class networks, along with their sizeable reach and availability in Canada, will significantly help to extend Azure services. This can further Canadian business innovation and competitiveness in a cloud-first, mobile-first world."