Tommy Hilfiger Japan Corporation wanted to improve efficiency and data security. The company decided to replace stand-alone computers across 170 locations with mobile thin clients running Windows Embedded. The thin clients are connected locally to peripheral devices as well as remotely to the corporate infrastructure. By using an intelligent system to share information more efficiently, Tommy Hilfiger is enhancing customer service and brand identity, strengthening security, improving manageability and cutting costs.

Great River Health Systems, a regional provider of healthcare, sought a better solution for medication management. To improve efficiency and patient care, its hospital replaced manual processes and upgraded its distribution platform with an intelligent system from Microsoft and Omnicell based on Windows Embedded. As a result, Great River has reduced delivery time of patient medication from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes, cut $400,000 in inventory costs, and expects rapid ROI and ongoing annual savings of $300,000.

Webzen, an online game developer, wanted to support the global launch of Arctic Combat, a new massively multiplayer game that would be played online by thousands of users. To minimize lag time in dynamic combat scenarios, Webzen decided to run Arctic Combat in a hybrid-cloud environment based on the Windows Azure platform. As a result, players can enjoy a smooth gaming experience, including first-person-shooter (FPS) combat, without communication errors. The solution also seamlessly transfers data between the cloud and on-premises infrastructure, so Webzen can offer its games in regions where cloud services are not available. Arctic Combat launched successfully in the North American and European markets in December 2012.

Sneaky Games creates video games for multiple online platforms, including Facebook and other social media. With millions of players online each day, the company required a solution that could quickly scale up and down as needed. To ensure rapid response times and continuous availability, the company runs its entire infrastructure—including a content delivery network, game servers, and databases—in the cloud on the Windows Azure platform. By taking advantage of features such as binary large object (BLOB) storage and caching services to store player and game information, Sneaky Games ensures that data is always ready and quickly accessible. And with Windows Azure development tools, the small team can speed game development without requiring an IT department. As a result, the company can focus on doing what it loves to do—creating great games.

VRX Studios, which provides photography and content management services to the global travel industry, needed a digital asset management solution that could handle thousands of concurrent users and hundreds of terabytes of data. For optimal scalability, the company created MediaValet, a cloud-based asset management system that runs on the Windows Azure platform. Geo-replication and triple redundancy ensure continuous availability, and the company can quickly increase its computing and storage capacity to handle more users. By using Windows Azure to improve performance, functionality, and usability, the company believes that MediaValet will become its most successful endeavor yet. VRX Studios plans to keep evolving together with the Windows Azure platform, continually adding more features that improve the end-user experience.

Digimarc Corporation, a provider of digital watermarking solutions, is using the Windows Azure platform to deliver its innovative services on a global scale. By integrating its Digimarc Discover app with Windows Azure, the company can quickly deliver media content to users worldwide. Running on mobile devices, the app detects digital watermarks embedded in print media and returns relevant information to the reader. With Windows Azure, Digimarc can quickly develop and deliver new solutions that help users connect the things they see in their daily lives with the vast array of information available online.

Emotive, a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, realized that people were using mobile devices more often than conventional desktops to interact with business applications. To help companies develop and deploy mobile apps more easily, Emotive created an SaaS platform that runs in the cloud on Windows Azure. By taking advantage of Emotive and Windows Azure, businesses can create cloud-based apps that integrate with on-premises data centers and run on multiple mobile devices. As a result, employees can access business applications and data from virtually any location worldwide, which helps them save time and stay productive. Emotive benefits as well—the company can focus on designing and enhancing its own solutions instead of managing IT infrastructure.

Autolib’ is an electric-car-sharing program established by the city of Paris and 48 surrounding municipalities to relieve traffic congestion, reduce noise and air pollution, and provide people with more-flexible transit options. Implemented by logistics company IER, the intelligent system based on Windows Embedded provides connectivity between the in-car system, registration and rental kiosks, charging stations, and a central management system. By 2023, the solution is expected to replace more than 25,000 privately owned cars, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 75 million metric tons. With Autolib’, former car owners have also cut their transportation costs by 90 percent annually. Autolib’ subscribers enjoy an enhanced driving experience with GPS navigation, free parking, and personalized settings. The flexible solution also simplifies implementation and minimizes deployment risk.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients is the leading fertilizer manufacturer in New Zealand. The company wanted to improve the performance of its critical SAP applications to better serve customers. To do that, Ballance migrated its database to Microsoft SQL Server 2012, greatly improving application performance. Employees are more productive, and the company has cut storage costs by 60 percent. Also, Ballance can better handle business growth.

Singapore firm SATS, a leading provider of gateway services and food solutions, wanted to move its mission-critical SAP ERP environment to a more cost-effective and easily scalable environment. The company implemented a solution based on a Microsoft platform that includes Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. As a result, the company cut operating costs by approximately 20 percent while increasing scalability about 30 percent. SATS can now expand its enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities more easily and affordably, provide remote real-time access to line-of-business software and cloud-based office programs, and streamline its IT environment and business processes.