Microsoft outlines intelligent cloud push
Microsoft Corp. chief executive Satya Nadella on Tuesday said his company is betting big on cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), or ‘intelligent cloud’, in India.
Microsoft intends to make its cloud computing platform Azure “the world’s computer”, Nadella said at the Future Decoded summit in Bengaluru. Microsoft Azure has 57 data centre regions globally, with three centres in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai.
The Bengaluru event drew 700 executives, and was live streamed across seven tech campuses, including Accenture, Cognizant and Infosys, with 700,000 online viewers.
Microsoft’s revenue from
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intelligent cloud stood at $11.9 billion and increased 27% yearon-year as compared to the total revenue, which stood at $36.9 billion and increased 14%, for the quarter ended December. The company has forecast its intelligent cloud revenue to be in the range of $11.85-12.05 billion for the next quarter.
Nadella emphasised on the need to take “cloud to the edge”, which refers to bringing computing as close to the source of data as possible in order to reduce latency and bandwidth use. “Our differentiated approach across the cloud and edge is winning customers,” Nadella said.
Azure is “motivated” by the 50 billion connected devices the world will have by 2030 and the computing power that would be needed to analyse 175 zettabytes of data by 2025, Nadella said. “Currently, 73% of the business data is unanalysed.”
Microsoft offers its customers a secure cloud computing platform, which would be the foundation for enabling digital transformation in any organisation, Nadella said. At the same time, the core currency of any business going forward will be the ability to convert data into AI that drives competitive advantage.