{"id":489,"date":"2015-04-30T12:29:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T16:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/?p=489"},"modified":"2018-07-05T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T21:08:24","slug":"microsoft-is-a-platform-company-now-aims-for-20b-annual-cloud-revenue-by-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/microsoft-is-a-platform-company-now-aims-for-20b-annual-cloud-revenue-by-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Is a \u2018Platform\u2019 Company Now; Aims for $20B Annual Cloud Revenue By 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since taking over as Microsoft’s CEO in February of last year, Satya Nadella hasn\u2019t been about his vision for the software giant. Nadella declared Microsoft a \u201cproductivity and platform company\u201d, in a memo<\/a>\u00a0released last year, so it should be no surprise that the former executive vice president of Microsoft\u2019s Cloud and Enterprise Group is now pushing the company further into the cloud.<\/p>\n

In a financial analyst briefing during Microsoft\u2019s Build Developer Conference yesterday, Nadella announced that the company has big plans for its cloud computing business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an ambition to get to $20 billion of annualized run rate in the cloud in FY18,\u201d said Nadella. That revenue, Nadella said, will come from a combination of Microsoft\u2019s platform as a service (PaaS) offering Azure, Dynamics CRM, and the successfully software as a service (SaaS) suite Office 365.<\/p>\n

To reach that number, Microsoft will have to triple its annualized run rate over the next three years; Microsoft\u2019s cloud computing business is currently on an annualized run rate of $6.3 billion, based on Q3.\u00a0 Annualized run rate is quarterly revenue presented on an annualized basis, assuming no growth.<\/p>\n

When releasing its Q3 numbers<\/a> last week, Microsoft stated that its profitability had declined in the third quarter due to increasing costs and expenses that countered an increase in revenues.<\/p>\n

However, Microsoft\u2019s commercial cloud revenue for the quarter grew 106 percent from a year ago.<\/p>\n

Sadella\u2019s focus on Cloud and back-end services is a marked departure for prior Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer\u2019s focus on devices and services, and could be the key to the company\u2019s viability in coming years.<\/p>\n

Though Microsoft is still developing mobile devices, the company has struggled in the market\u2014 as of Januarys 2015, Microsoft share of the U.S. Mobile market is a mere 3.6 percent.<\/p>\n

By focusing on cloud products like Office 365 Microsoft can stay relevant across devices and platforms. \u201cThe mobility of the experience is what matters,\u201d said Nadella, in the opening remarks of Build Conference.<\/p>\n

In the Build Conference analyst briefing, Nadella said that \u201ca lot has changed\u201d in the last 40 years, and \u201ca lot of technologies and a lot of devices, rightfully so, have come and gone.\u201d For now, Microsoft has shifted its attention from devices to the cloud. \u201cQualitatively, the way I describe the world that we live in and what it will be in the next five years is this mobile-first, cloud-first world,\u201d said Nadella.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a focus\u2026 our core is about being the best when it comes to productivity and platform in this mobile-first, cloud-first world.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looks as though that focus may be paying off for Microsoft. In the wake of Amazon\u2019s revelation<\/a> of Amazon Web Services revenues last week, some analysts<\/a> are claiming that Microsoft\u2019s cloud out sizes AWS, which is widely considered the leader in the cloud computing market. Currently, Microsoft\u2019s PaaS\/IaaS offering Azure\u2019s data centers support 19 regions globally, compared to AWS\u2019s 11.<\/p>\n

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Since taking over as Microsoft’s CEO in February of last year, Satya Nadella hasn\u2019t been about his vision for the software giant. Nadella declared Microsoft a \u201cproductivity and platform company\u201d, in a memo\u00a0released last year, so it should be no surprise that the former executive vice president of Microsoft\u2019s Cloud and Enterprise Group is now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53,31,78],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMicrosoft Is a \u2018Platform\u2019 Company Now; Aims for $20B Annual Cloud Revenue By 2018<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company is targeting $20 billion in annualized run rate for its cloud computing business by 2018.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/microsoft-is-a-platform-company-now-aims-for-20b-annual-cloud-revenue-by-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Edwards\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/microsoft-is-a-platform-company-now-aims-for-20b-annual-cloud-revenue-by-2018\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/microsoft-is-a-platform-company-now-aims-for-20b-annual-cloud-revenue-by-2018\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Is a \u2018Platform\u2019 Company Now; 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