Microsoft decides to push GreenButton

Chairman Marcel van den Assum, a former chief information officer of Fonterra, said Microsoft would help it sell the application to major software vendors, and GreenButton would use Microsoft's cloud computing platform Windows Azure to provide processing power to clients.

The government's Venture Investment Fund

GreenButton investors include the government's Venture Investment Fund, Movac founder Phil McCaw, and Datacom founder John Holdsworth. Former Sun Microsystems executive Mark Canepa is a shareholder and sits alongside Mr van den Assum and chief executive Scott Houston – once head of innovation at Weta Digital – on the board of directors. Microsoft had not acquired any equity in GreenButton as part of its deal.

Windows Azure general manager Doug Hauger said GreenButton was creating a "unequalled solution" that could be used in a variety of industries.

GreenButton could turn to other providers for processing power, for instance, if a customer required a job to be done in a certain country. The Government's ultrafast broadband rollout would provide fundamental infrastructure to improve access to cloud services just as GreenButton's, Mr van den Assum said.

IDC Technology analyst Rasika Versleijen-Pradhan said cloud computing was however at an early stage. GreenButton was "a first stepping stone" to accessing web services through desktop software. IDC predicted global spending on cloud computing would reach US$55.5 billion in 2014, up on $16b in 2009.