Cloud Cruiser, the pioneer in cloud financial management, today announced support for Windows Azure public cloud, providing the capability to perform sophisticated financial analysis across Microsoft Corp.'s Cloud OS platform, including System Center 2012 R2, Windows Server with Hyper-V, and the Windows Azure Pack.

For the first time, enterprises can use Cloud Cruiser's Cost Advisor analytics to compare actual IT usage and spending across their hybrid cloud, and project the savings they would gain by redistributing their workloads. As an example, the analytics could be used to compare current metrics for VMs, SQL Server databases, and websites, and demonstrate how much an enterprise might save by shifting certain resources from their private cloud to Windows Azure public cloud or vice versa.

"Microsoft's hybrid cloud strategy provides a complete cloud platform that encompasses on-premises datacenters, Windows Azure, and a hosting provider's datacenter," says Vibhor Kapoor, Director, Windows Azure Product Management, Microsoft. "Cloud Cruiser builds on this comprehensive platform, providing clear, actionable financial intelligence across hybrid cloud environments, enabling our customers to gain insights to maximize their cloud investments."

According to The New Era for Hosted Services, a 2013 Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by 451 Research LLC, 68% of customers plan to adopt hybrid cloud models within the next two years.1

"With the explosion of hybrid cloud adoption, enterprises need a solution to optimize for lowest cost," states William Fellows, Founder of 451 Group.  "Cloud Cruiser has delivered an IT financial management solution that can proactively advise enterprises and hosters where to gain the greatest cost efficiencies across their public, private, and hosted environments, setting a new high watermark for economic modelling in service delivery"

"Our hybrid IT Cost Advisor analytics will enable enterprises to track and compare spending and determine the optimal distribution of workloads across their hybrid clouds," states Cloud Cruiser VP of Strategy, Nick van der Zweep. "This solves the growing industry demand for a single platform that can provide financial analysis across multiple cloud computing environments."

The product also offers agile pricing models, billing automation, and a robust suite of decision analytics designed to help companies transform their IT businesses into more efficient and profitable enterprises.