Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” division—which accounts for Microsoft Azure and all cloud products and services—increased by seven percent to $6.7 billion. Revenue from Azure alone grew 102 percent, with Azure computing usage more than doubling year-over-year. Furthermore, Microsoft reported its “commercial cloud annualized revenue run rate exceeds $12.1 billion.”
What does all this mean? The Microsoft cloud is makin’ it rain, and this is good news for the IT industry. The strength of Microsoft’s cloud business surprised investors, according to CIO Journal’s Jay Greene. The reason is that Microsoft showed it is mastering the transition to cloud. And this means endless potential for IT Services Providers who are also able to make the transition. If Microsoft is looking to become the industry’s most prolific cloud provider, this latest earnings report proves it is on the right track.
Sounds like Amazon, the reigning cloud computing king, needs to watch its back. When Amazon releases its Q2 earnings report on July 28, we’ll find out just how close Azure and the Microsoft Cloud is to AWS. Analysts forecast heavy rains. Stay tuned.