Stefan Mileschin

The future is cloudy

Microsoft posted quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, as more businesses signed up for its Azure cloud computing services and Office 365 productivity suite.

Azure cloud product recorded revenue growth of 89 percent in the fourth quarter ended June 30. Much of Microsoft’s recent growth has been fueled by its cloud computing business, which has benefited from companies rushing to shift their workloads to the cloud to cut data storage and software costs.

Microsoft shares have risen 180 percent since Satya Nadella took over as chief executive in 2014, refocusing the company on cloud computing rather than PC software. Its market cap edged above $800 billion for the first time earlier this month.

Azure has a 16 percent share of the global cloud infrastructure market, making it the second-biggest provider of cloud services after Amazon Web Services, according to April estimates by research firm Canalys.

Revenue at Microsoft’s productivity and business processes unit, which includes Office 365, rose 13.1 percent to $9.67 billion, topping analysts’ average expectation of $9.65 billion.

Revenue for the company’s LinkedIn business and job network grew 37 percent from the year-ago quarter, while its Dynamics 365 online business application suite posted a 61 percent increase.

With numbers like that Vole is looking like a formidable threat to Salesforce too.

Overall, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker’s revenue rose 17.5 percent to $30.09 billion, above expectations of $29.21 billion.

Net income rose to $8.87 billion, or $1.14 per share, from $8.07 billion, or $1.03 per share, in the fourth quarter a year ago.

https://fudzilla.com/news/memory-and...hanks-to-cloud