Accenture and Microsoft have signed an agreement that enables Accenture to provide clients with an end-to-end public cloud solution on the Windows Azure platform. The agreement extends to Avanade, a provider of business technology solutions and managed services, and enables both Accenture and Avanade to sell, host and deliver Windows Azure services to clients. Avanade is a majority-owned subsidiary of Accenture.

Under the agreement, Accenture will expand its infrastructure outsourcing options to include Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services (and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) as it becomes available) from Windows Azure.  Accenture and Avanade clients are now able to sign a single contract for the delivery and running of cloud services on Windows Azure to receive one-stop provisioning and monitoring through Accenture.

Accenture and Avanade have collaborated for more than two years to provide solutions for enterprise-ready public and private cloud solutions on the Windows Azure platform, and integrate them within the hybrid cloud environments used by clients.