A Public Cloud Services Launched by Microsoft  in China

Microsoft becomes the first multinational company to offer public cloud services in China. Also: BlackBerry sues one of its own before he can jump to Apple; there's a new plot twist in Turkey's Twitter drama; and Sony will pocket tens of millions by selling off property.

Microsoft is now offering general availability of its Azure cloud service in China, becoming the first multinational company to provide public cloud services in the Middle Kingdom.

Microsoft is partnering with 21Vianet, a Chinese data center services provider, a marriage that likely helped appease Beijing officials. (Until now, all major cloud providers in China -- Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent -- have been Chinese.)

The China launch is part of a broad push in Asia. Windows Azure -- the name will change to "Microsoft Azure" on April 3 -- became generally available in Japan last month. There are already Azure data centers in Singapore and Hong Kong.