New Delhi: Microsoft India on Thursday launched the Azure IP Advantage programme to protect against intellectual property (IP) risks.

The programme will help Azure -- Microsoft's Cloud platform -- customers and developers focus on innovation while allowing businesses and enterprises to be able to respond to the changing needs of their customers with agility, without the fear of litigation.

"The programme will make available 10,000 Microsoft patents to customers that use Azure services for the sole purpose of enabling them to better defend themselves against patent lawsuits against their services that run on top of Azure," the company said in a statement.

According to market research firm Gartner estimates, as the industry shifts to the cloud, it will generate more than $1 trillion in IT spending by 2020.

--IANS