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Tag: Azure

  • Wedbush: Microsoft’s ‘Picasso-Like Masterpiece Quarter’ Will Exceed Estimates

    Wedbush: Microsoft’s ‘Picasso-Like Masterpiece Quarter’ Will Exceed Estimates

    Microsoft’s run of good quarters appears poised to continue, with a “Picasso-like masterpiece quarter.”

    Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders, especially in regard to its Azure cloud platform. The company is in second place in the cloud market, but has the advantage of onboarding companies and organizations that have been using its desktop OS and software for decades.

    Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush, is once again raising his target price, this time from $350 to $375. According to TheStreet, Ives says the company “will deliver another Picasso-like masterpiece quarter with numbers that should handily exceed Street estimates.”

    Ives also believes Microsoft is continuing to benefit from the accelerated shift to the cloud.

    “We are seeing deal sizes continue to increase markedly as enterprise-wide digital transformation shifts are accelerating,” he continued.

    Microsoft reports its earnings on October 26.

  • Microsoft Relies on SUSE Linux for SAP Applications in Azure

    Microsoft Relies on SUSE Linux for SAP Applications in Azure

    Gone are the days of Linux and Microsoft being rivals, with the Redmond giant embracing SUSE Linux to run SAP applications in Azure.

    Anyone who has been around technology longer than the past decade remembers the time when Microsoft was notoriously territorial about its operating system. The company aggressively fought anything it felt was a threat to Windows, including Linux.

    The company’s culture shifted under CEO Satya Nadella, with a new emphasis on cloud computing and providing the best software and services on many different platforms. The strategy has paid off in spades, with Microsoft reaching all-new heights.

    Microsoft is even embracing Linux, including Windows Subsystem for Linux in the most recent editions of Windows, allowing users to run Linux apps natively. The same is true for the company’s approach to SAP applications in Azure, choosing SUSE Linux as the foundation, according to SUSE’s Paul Fox.

    “SLES for SAP Applications makes our complete deployment process way easier. It comes preconfigured with SAP requirements so we can deploy without having to take any extra steps,” Elke Bregler, Principal Service Architect, Microsoft, told Fox. “It also allows us to resize [VMs] without having to change any configurations. It’s quite easy to use and makes for a much better experience for everyone involved.”

    SAP’s own trust in SUSE was a major factor in Microsoft’s decision-making process, as SUSE has been an SAP “partner longer than any other open source company.” With so much on the line — proving Azure could be a robust cloud solution — SUSE offered a solid track record that aligned with Microsoft’s needs.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications soon proved itself a highly available, easy to maintain and fast scaling database management solution. As a Premium Certified SAP Endorsed App, SLES for SAP Applications provides an environment for optimal SAP performance: reduced risk from service outages; less time and effort for system maintenance; and faster services deployment on premises and in the cloud for SAP solutions.

    SUSE Consulting provided another major benefit.

    The addition of SUSE Consulting completed the picture for Microsoft, providing direct access to subject matter experts, which meant faster resolution times, mitigation of potential issues and the enablement of more precise planning for future projects.

    In recent years Microsoft has become a major force within the open source community, a community it once viewed as an enemy. Its success and contributions demonstrate the good that can come when companies embrace open source software.

  • Microsoft Warns Customers of Major Azure Security Issue

    Microsoft Warns Customers of Major Azure Security Issue

    Microsoft is warning impacted customers of a flaw in Azure Container Instances (ACI) that could allow individuals to access other customers information.

    It’s been a bad few weeks for Microsoft on the security front. Research firm Wiz discovered a flaw — named #ChaosDB — in Azure’s Cosmos DB that could allow a hacker to access other users’ databases.

    Now Palo Alto Networks have discovered a new flaw that could allow a malicious user to gain access to other information in the ACI service, according to Microsoft. The company says it has already fixed the vulnerability and has notified impacted customers.

    There is no indication any customer data was accessed due to this vulnerability. Out of an abundance of caution, notifications were sent to customers potentially affected by the researcher activities, advising they revoke any privileged credential that were deployed to the platform before August 31, 2021.

    If you did not receive a Service Health Notification, no action is required. The vulnerability is fixed and our investigation surfaced no unauthorized access in other clusters. If you are unsure whether your subscription or organization has received a notification, please contact Azure Support. If you have any concerns, rotating privileged credentials is a good periodic security practice and would be an effective precautionary measure.

    As the second-largest cloud provider, Microsoft better get a handle on its security issues before it starts losing customer confidence.

  • Microsoft, Verizon Announce Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge

    Microsoft, Verizon Announce Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge

    Microsoft and Verizon are deepening their partnership, announcing Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge.

    While 5G is often thought of in the context of cell phones, tablets and computers, some of its greatest promise is in the realm of edge computing. With its high speeds and low latency, 5G allows data to be processed at the edge, greatly improving response times for mission-critical applications. Private 5G networks also allow for greater security.

    As one of the leading cloud computing platforms, bringing 5G edge computing to Microsoft Azure is a game-changer for many of Microsoft’s customers.

    “Our partnership with Microsoft brings 5G Edge to enterprises, dropping latency at the edge, helping critical, performance-impacting applications respond more quickly and efficiently,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Revenue Officer of Verizon Business. “5G is ushering in next-generation business applications, from core connectivity to real-time edge compute and new applications and solutions that take advantage of AI transforming nearly every industry.”

    “Business innovation demands powerful technology solutions and central to this is the intersection between the network and edge” said Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president Azure for Operators at Microsoft. “Through our partnership with Verizon, we are providing customers with powerful compute and storage service capabilities at the edge of customers’ networks, enabling robust application experiences with increased security.”

  • Researchers Gain Access to Thousands of Microsoft Azure Customer Databases

    Researchers Gain Access to Thousands of Microsoft Azure Customer Databases

    Researchers from security firm Wiz have gained access to thousands of Microsoft Azure customer databases, demonstrating a major security flaw.

    Microsoft Azure is currently the second largest cloud platform, behind AWS. As a result, companies the world over, large and small, rely on the platform for mission-critical operations.

    According to Wiz, the issue impacts Azures flagship database, Cosmos DB. 

    A series of flaws in a Cosmos DB feature created a loophole allowing any user to download, delete or manipulate a massive collection of commercial databases, as well as read/write access to the underlying architecture of Cosmos DB.

    We named this vulnerability #ChaosDB. Exploiting it was trivial and required no other credentials.

    The flaw revolves around the Jupyter Notebook feature that Microsoft added in 2019. A misconfiguration in the notebook allows an attacker to escalate privileges and access other notebooks, the primary keys and eventually the entire database.

    Every Cosmos DB account that uses the notebook feature, or that was created after January 2021, is potentially at risk. Starting this February, every newly created Cosmos DB account had the notebook feature enabled by default and their Primary Key could have been exposed even if the customer was not aware of it and never used the feature. 

    Microsoft has already begun warning customers, although it’s unclear to what extent. Wiz told The Register it believes Microsoft has only warned roughly 30% of impacted users, while Microsoft is saying all those affected have been notified.

    Whatever the case, this is a devastating issue for Microsoft, coming on the heels of other widespread vulnerabilities.

  • Microsoft’s Azure Government Top Secret Now Available

    Microsoft’s Azure Government Top Secret Now Available

    Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Azure Government Top Secret, in the company’s bid to gain more government contracts.

    Government contracts are some of the most lucrative contracts for tech companies, including cloud providers. Needless to say, however, combining cloud options with classified and top secret information presents very unique challenges. At one point, Amazon had a clear lead, being the only company to have achieved the Pentagon’s Impact Level 6 certification. Microsoft closed that gap in late 2019, and has been accelerating its efforts to get government cloud contracts ever since.

    The company has now announced its Azure Government Top Secret is now generally available, aimed squarely at the needs of government agencies with the strictest security requires.

    “We’ve worked in close collaboration with the US Government to build a cloud portfolio that serves the national security mission and empowers leaders across the Intelligence Community (IC), Department of Defense (DoD), and Federal Civilian agencies to innovate securely wherever the mission requires and at all data classifications, with a continuum of technology from on-premises to cloud to the tactical edge,” writes Tom Keane Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure.

    “Launching with more than 60 initial services and more coming soon, we’ve achieved the Authorization to Operate (ATO) of Azure Government Top Secret infrastructure in accordance with Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 and facilities accredited to meet the ICD 705 standards. These new air-gapped regions of Azure will accelerate the delivery of national security workloads classified at the US Top Secret level. In addition, we now have 73 services in Azure Government Secret, and we continue to bring new services into the boundary aligned to mission priorities.”

    Microsoft’s work to create an Azure solution to meet the government’s toughest requirements should be a major help in its efforts to go toe-to-toe with AWS.

  • Avaya and Microsoft Partner to Bring OneCloud CPaaS to Microsoft Azure

    Avaya and Microsoft Partner to Bring OneCloud CPaaS to Microsoft Azure

    Avaya and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership to bring Avaya’s Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) to Azure.

    Avaya has built its business around cloud-based communications, making it a natural fit to extend those abilities in Azure, one of the leading cloud computing platforms. The company’s OneCloud CPaaS will be integrated with Microsoft Azure Communication Services, including voice, video chat and SMS. Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 will also benefit, with OneCloud CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) integrated into both services.

    “Avaya and Microsoft are responding to our customers who have asked us to deliver more integrated experiences for Avaya OneCloud Contact Center running in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. Together we are providing true integration, spanning not just the contact center application itself but also the underlying communication platforms. Additionally we will be implementing Microsoft’s powerful AI capabilities via Azure Cognitive Services,” said Anthony Bartolo, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Avaya. “Avaya’s market-leading solutions in Cloud Contact Center combined with Microsoft’s presence in cloud collaboration is compelling for existing and new customers alike.”

    “The global collaboration with Avaya is an example of how Microsoft, collaborating with other industry leaders, is meeting businesses’ requirements for integrated communications solutions that transform customer and employee experience,” said Scott Van Vliet, Corporate Vice President, Intelligent Conversation and Communications Cloud, Microsoft. “This relationship benefits from the combined strengths of the two companies to connect businesses to their customers via powerful communication experiences across platforms – all with the resiliency, enterprise-grade security and cloud scale of Microsoft Azure.”

  • Microsoft Announces Microsoft Cloud for Retail

    Microsoft Announces Microsoft Cloud for Retail

    Microsoft has announced a new vertical cloud, Microsoft Cloud for Retail, aiming to be an end-to-end retail solution.

    Microsoft Azure has been gaining ground in the cloud market, with a recent report showing it one of the biggest winners during the current digital transformation. Microsoft Azure is increasingly seen as a viable alternative to AWS, especially among retailers who are leery of relying on a cloud offering from their biggest rival.

    Microsoft is capitalizing on this by offering a vertical cloud solution tailored to the specific needs of the retail market.

    The unmatched performance of Microsoft Azure allows our customers to intelligently manage secure workloads across multiple sites and domains, scale those workloads to process millions of requests per second, and improve the logistics to manage each order. Azure Data and AI services help retailers respond to market forces, improve decision-making, and put customers first by breaking down their data silos to manage, merge, shape, and analyze the data and, as a result, uncover actionable insights.

    With Azure, retailers get the best of at-scale cloud, data, and AI workloads including industry data models that enable data management, governance, and domain excellence in one cloud platform from a provider that does not compete with them. As a result, retailers can build better digital feedback loops—the connections between their customers, their people, their stores, their data, and the insights at the heart of each—on a platform from a trusted partner.

    Microsoft’s announcement does not include pricing. The company is confident, however, that its latest vertical cloud will help the retail industry deal with the challenges and opportunities it is currently facing.

  • SAP Partners With Google Cloud to Accelerate Customer Cloud Adoption

    SAP Partners With Google Cloud to Accelerate Customer Cloud Adoption

    SAP and Google are tightening their working relationship, with the two companies partnering to help customers move to the cloud.

    Google switched from Oracle Finance to SAP in April, and now Google Cloud and SAP are partnering to help accelerate cloud adoption.

    “Google Cloud and SAP share a commitment to supporting customer success and growth. We’re delighted to partner with SAP to accelerate business’ digital transformations with SAP on Google Cloud and with next-generation cloud capabilities,” said Rob Enslin, President at Google Cloud. “Through support for RISE with SAP and in-depth integrations between SAP and Google Cloud, this new partnership will enable customers to seamlessly bring their most critical business systems and applications to a future-proof, secure, and low-latency environment and to run them sustainably, on the industry’s cleanest cloud.”

    “RISE with SAP has been adopted by customers who want to accelerate their journey toward becoming an Intelligent Enterprise. We are now expanding our partnership with Google Cloud to further customer success,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and responsible for SAP Product Engineering. “Offering integration between SAP solutions, SAP BTP, and Google Cloud infrastructure and capabilities in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics gives customers both the choice they desire as well as the innovative portfolio they seek to transform their businesses in the cloud.”

    The partnership is not particularly surprising, given Microsoft Azure stopped being SAP’s preferred cloud partner in May. At the time, SAP said they were making the decision due to their customers wanting more choice.

  • Microsoft Tops Forecasts on Strong Cloud Results

    Microsoft Tops Forecasts on Strong Cloud Results

    Microsoft has announced its quarterly results, topping forecasts on strong Azure performance.

    Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders, recently becoming just the second company to cross the $2 trillion valuation mark. Multiple analysts have raised the company’s stock target, citing its cloud business, which benefits from the Microsoft’s strong legacy business.

    The latest quarterly results bear out that optimism, with the company reporting $46.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 21%. Significantly, the company’s Intelligent Cloud revenue came in at $17.4 billion, up 30%. Azure growth, in particular, was a whopping 51%. Overall net income for the quarter was $16.5 billion, an increase of 47%.

    The company’s revenue for Fiscal Year 2021 was $168.1 billion, up 18%. Net income was $61.3 billion GAAP, an increase of 38%.

    “We are innovating across the technology stack to help organizations drive new levels of tech intensity across their business,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our results show that when we execute well and meet customers’ needs in differentiated ways in large and growing markets, we generate growth, as we’ve seen in our commercial cloud – and in new franchises we’ve built, including gaming, security, and LinkedIn, all of which surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue over the past three years.”

    “As we closed out the fiscal year, our sales teams and partners delivered a strong quarter with over 20% top and bottom-line growth, highlighted by commercial bookings growth of 30% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “Our commercial cloud revenue grew 36% year over year to $19.5 billion.”

  • Jefferies Raises Microsoft Stock Target on Fundamentals

    Jefferies Raises Microsoft Stock Target on Fundamentals

    Jefferies analyst Brent Thill has raised his price target for Microsoft’s stock on what he sees as strong fundamentals.

    Microsoft has been on a tear in recent quarters, boosted by its Azure cloud computing platform. The company is currently in second place in the cloud industry, behind AWS, but many experts see Microsoft’s cloud platform continuing to benefit from its legacy business. Given how much of the business world runs on Microsoft, migrating to Azure is a no-brainer for many Microsoft-based shops.

    With the company set to announce its quarterly results tomorrow, Brent Thill has raised his target price for the stock from $310 to $335, according to TheStreet.

    “Microsoft been a significant outperformer year to date, up 30% vs the software index, setting the bar slightly higher for MSFT shares going into the” earnings report, Thill said.

    “Key items to watch are fiscal 2022 margin pressure, elevated expectations and more color on recent merger acquisition and broader aspirations,” Thill added.

  • AT&T Taps Microsoft Azure for Its 5G Network

    AT&T Taps Microsoft Azure for Its 5G Network

    AT&T is turning to Microsoft to help it deploy its 5G network, and will rely on Microsoft Azure to manage its network traffic.

    Like virtually every major carrier, AT&T is racing to deploy its 5G network. The company recently spent more than $23 billion at the FCC’s 5G spectrum auction.

    AT&T is now looking to Microsoft to help roll out its 5G network, with plans to use Azure to manage its network. The companies will begin with the 5G core, and work to migrate existing and future network workloads to Azure for Operators, Microsoft’s version of Azure specifically targeted at telecoms.

    As part of the deal, Microsoft will gain access to AT&T’s intellectual property, including acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud, which the company has been using to run its 5G network since 2018. Microsoft will be able to integrate Network Cloud’s features and abilities into Azure for Operators.

    “AT&T has one of the world’s most powerful global backbone networks serving hundreds of millions of subscribers. Our Network Cloud team has proved that running a network in the cloud drives speed, security, cost improvements and innovation. Microsoft’s decision to acquire these assets is a testament to AT&T’s leadership in network virtualization, culture of innovation, and realization of a telco-grade cloud stack,” said Andre Fuetsch, executive vice president and chief technology officer, AT&T. “The next step is making this capability accessible to operators around the world and ensuring it has the resources behind it to continue to evolve and improve. And do it securely. Microsoft’s cloud expertise and global reach make them the perfect fit for this next phase.”

    “With Azure, operators can provide a more flexible and scalable service model, save infrastructure cost, and use AI to automate operations and differentiate customer offerings,” said Jason Zander, executive vice president Azure, Microsoft. “Through our collaboration with AT&T, Microsoft will expand its telecom portfolio to support operators with a carrier-grade cloud that provides seamless experiences across Microsoft’s cloud and the operator’s network.”

    The deal is a big win for Microsoft, especially as it pushes its Azure for Operators, and will give its cloud platform a major boost in the telecom market.

  • Microsoft 365 Down, Microsoft Working On Fix

    Microsoft 365 Down, Microsoft Working On Fix

    Microsoft 365 has been down for many users throughout Monday, with the company working on mitigation efforts.

    Shortly after 3:00, users started reporting issues with Microsoft 365, according to DownDetector. Users reported issues with virtually every aspect of Microsoft 365. The company confirmedthe issue, and how widespread it is.

    Any service that leverages Azure Active Directory (AAD) may be affected. This includes but is not limited to Microsoft Teams, Forms, Exchange Online, Intune and Yammer. Admins may also be unable to access the Service Health Dashboard.

    Microsoft has rolled out mitigation efforts, although some users continue to be impacted.

    Microsoft has yet to explain exactly what caused the issue, although it says it has identified it.

  • Nokia Partners With Big Three Cloud Providers for 5G Cloud Solutions

    Nokia Partners With Big Three Cloud Providers for 5G Cloud Solutions

    Nokia has announced partnerships with AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud to develop 5G cloud solutions.

    The Finnish company made the separate announcements on Monday, partnering with each company to tackle different areas for 5G improvements.

    In the case of both AWS and Google Cloud, Nokia will be working on cloud-based 5G radio solutions. The partnerships will see Nokia work with both companies on Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, Cloud RAN (vRAN) and edge technologies. Open RAN is designed to allow carriers to use interoperable hardware and software from multiple vendors, rather than being locked into vendor-specific solutions. Similarly, Cloud Ran allows carriers to manage their RAN functions using cloud computing principles and resources.

    “This collaboration with Nokia will extend the reach of our industry-leading cloud technology to support our Telco and enterprise customers,” said Dave Brown, Vice President, Amazon EC2, AWS. “We look forward to working closely on this collaboration and offer multiple deployment choices for customers to build 5G Cloud RAN and Open RAN solutions. Our customers will benefit from different options to run 5G RAN using AWS Outposts with either Intel or ARM-based CPU choices, or third-party bare metal servers while using Amazon EKS and EKS Anywhere. This will solve for the challenge of CI/CD, automation, and network orchestration by using a common framework of tools across Core and RAN.”

    Meanwhile, Nokia is partnering with Microsoft to integrate its Cloud RAN technology into Microsoft Azure. Nokia will include its 5G RAN with Azure 4G/5G to better support enterprise customers.

    “Microsoft believes in the importance of an open and interoperable ecosystem of solutions on the Azure carrier grade platform,” said Yousef Khalidi, Corporate Vice President, Azure for Operators at Microsoft Corp. “Our collaboration with Nokia across multiple potential use cases, based on specific customer demand, will provide operators with choices on how the best adopt cloud technology in concert with their 5G updates to drive new revenue streams, reduce cost and future proof their network investment.”

  • Goldman Sachs: Microsoft Could Climb 38%

    Goldman Sachs: Microsoft Could Climb 38%

    Goldman Sachs has added Microsoft to its “Conviction List,” touting “sustained double-digit” revenue growth.

    Microsoft is currently the second-place cloud company, behind AWS. Nonetheless, the company is seen as being in a particularly strong position, thanks to its legacy business and potential to help its clients move to the cloud.

    According to Business Insider, Goldman Sachs is now calling for a $315 price target on Microsoft’s stock, a 38% increase over Monday’s close. Goldman highlighted the company’s cloud potential, saying Microsoft is “well-positioned to capitalize on a number of long-term secular trends, including public cloud and SaaS adoption, digital transformation, AI/ML, BI/analytics, and DevOps (amongst others).”

    Microsoft has been one of the biggest winners during the pandemic, with a majority of polled companies planning on increasing their Azure and Microsoft SaaS spending. In fact, a higher percentage of respondents planned on increasing their spending on Microsoft, as opposed to those planning on increasing their AWS spending.

    Wedbush recently raised their own target from $260 to $270, while acknowledging a bull-case possibility of $300 a share. It appears Goldman Sachs is a even more bullish with their $315 target.

  • Boardroom Meets Holodeck: Microsoft Intros Mixed Reality Microsoft Mesh

    Boardroom Meets Holodeck: Microsoft Intros Mixed Reality Microsoft Mesh

    Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Mesh, a new mixed-reality experience that could revolutionize remote work, communication and socialization.

    Ever since Star Trek popularized the concept of the Holodeck, people the world over have dreamed of the day when it would be a reality. Microsoft is taking a big step toward that goal with its Microsoft Mesh mixed reality technology.

    Mixed reality, as its name suggests, mixes virtual reality with real-life objects and people. Unlike straight virtual reality, mixed reality offers certain advantages, especially for meetings, socializing and some training scenarios.

    Powered by Azure, Microsoft Mesh “uses 3D capture technology to beam a lifelike image of a person into a virtual scene,” a process the company refers to as “holoportation.” The technology will allow individuals to hold meetings, collaborate, socialize and more using a lifelike, photorealistic likeness.

    “This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.”

    Many companies have been working on virtual and mixed reality applications, but Microsoft has just raised the bar for what can be accomplished with the technology.

  • Volkswagen Chooses Microsoft Azure to Accelerate Autonomous Driving

    Volkswagen Chooses Microsoft Azure to Accelerate Autonomous Driving

    Volkswagen has announced it is partnering with Microsoft to use Azure to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles.

    The majority of automakers are working on autonomous driving as the next major evolution of the auto industry. Various automakers are taking different approaches, with Volkswagen indicating it wants to develop its autonomous software in-house.

    To aid in that goal, Volkswagen’s software company, Car.Software Organisation, will work with Microsoft to use Azure to help build a cloud-based Automated Driving Platform (ADP). Running ADP on Azure will allow Volkswagen to develop the platform faster and scale it globally.

    “As we transform Volkswagen Group into a digital mobility provider, we are looking to continuously increase the efficiency of our software development. We are building the Automated Driving Platform with Microsoft to simplify our developers’ work through one scalable and data-based engineering environment. By combining our comprehensive expertise in the development of connected driving solutions with Microsoft’s cloud and software engineering know-how, we will accelerate the delivery of safe and comfortable mobility services,” said Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of the Car.Software Organisation.

    “This is the next evolution of our foundational work with the Volkswagen Group to enhance their transformation as a software-driven mobility provider,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud + AI at Microsoft. “The power of Microsoft Azure and its compute, data and AI capabilities will enable Volkswagen to deliver secure and reliable automated driving solutions to their customers faster.”

    Snagging the world’s largest automaker, the Volkswagen Group, is a big win for Microsoft, especially in the wake of Ford’s decision to use Google Cloud for its connected vehicle efforts. Ford had long been a Microsoft partner, relying on the tech company’s software for its vehicles’ navigation and entertainment systems.

  • Microsoft Azure Will Be Bigger Than Office In 2022

    Microsoft Azure Will Be Bigger Than Office In 2022

    Microsoft Azure is growing by leaps and bounds, with at least one analyst predicting it will eclipse Office by 2022.

    Microsoft’s cloud platform has been on a tear, outpacing the industry’s growth and contributing to the company’s most recent stellar quarter. Despite being in second place behind AWS, Azure already makes up a larger portion of Microsoft’s business than its venerable Windows family of products.

    According to CNBC, Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin has said Azure is well on its way to eclipsing Microsoft Office, becoming the single biggest source of revenue for the company. Azure has already surpassed Office 365, but should surpass 365 and traditional licenses combined in 2022.

    “We have quarterly Azure revenue of $11.8B by June 2022 (eclipsing Office all-in revenue of $10.9B for the first time),” Bracelin told CNBC in an email on Wednesday.

    Azure’s growth — growing importance — is a validation of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s strategy. Since taking the helm, Nadella has changed the entire focus of the company. Microsoft was once known for vigorously protecting its Windows and Office platforms. Under Nadella, however, Microsoft has become far more open, working to provide its software on virtually all the major platforms. Nadella’s goal has been to provide the best experience…regardless of a person or organization’s platform of choice. A big part of that strategy has been Microsoft’s emphasis on Azure.

    In view of Azure’s growth, it’s clear Nadella knew exactly what he was doing when he helped Microsoft pivot to the cloud.

  • Microsoft Trounces Earnings Forecast on Cloud, ‘Digital Transformation’

    Microsoft has trounced earnings estimates on strong cloud and PC results, in what CEO Satya Nadella called “a second wave of digital transformation.”

    Just a day after Wedbush raised its Microsoft target price, the company smashed expectations with its Q2 earnings. In particular, cloud performance and PC sales helped propel results.

    The company reported revenue of $43.1 billion, an increase of 17% and handily beating analysts’ estimates of $40.2 billion. Net income was $15.5 billion, an increase of 33%.

    The company’s Intelligent Cloud business accounted for $14.6 billion, a 23% increase. Similarly, the More Personal Computing division accounted for $15.1 billion, an increase of 14%.

    “What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organization’s resilience and growth. Microsoft is powering this shift with the world’s largest and most comprehensive cloud platform.”

    “Accelerating demand for our differentiated offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $16.7 billion, up 34% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “We continue to benefit from our investments in strategic, high-growth areas.”

  • Wedbush Raises Microsoft Target On ‘Azure Growth Remaining Brisk’

    Wedbush Raises Microsoft Target On ‘Azure Growth Remaining Brisk’

    Just four weeks after saying Microsoft has “unparalleled” cloud advantages, Wedbush has raised its target price from $260 to $270.

    Microsoft has been making moves in the cloud industry, outpacing the industry’s growth rate and posing an ever bigger challenge to AWS. In particular, the company’s vast installed base give it a huge advantage in the cloud market, as existing customers have a sense of familiarity with the company’s products and ecosystem.

    On the verge of Microsoft’s earnings on Tuesday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the remote work environment is also working to boost Microsoft Azure, according to Business Insider.

    “This current work-from-home environment is further catalyzing more enterprises to make the strategic cloud shift with Microsoft across the board with Azure growth remaining brisk,” Ives said in a note to clients.

    Wedbush has raised its target to $270, but see $300 per share as a distinct bull-case possibility. According to BI “Ives estimates that Microsoft has only met 35% of the market for its cloud product and that permanent telework will accelerate other companies’ deployments of cloud-computing deals.”

    The report is good news for Microsoft as all eyes look to its earnings report Tuesday.

  • Microsoft and SAP Partner to Integrate Microsoft Teams

    Microsoft and SAP Partner to Integrate Microsoft Teams

    Microsoft and SAP are partnering to integrate Teams across SAP’s suite of solutions, with the goal of streamlining customers’ cloud transitions.

    Microsoft Teams and Slack are the two dominant corporate messaging platforms on the market. Salesforce recently inked a deal to acquire Slack in a move that was seen largely as a way to fend off threats and remain competitive. It’s not surprising that Saleforce’s rivals would want to offer similar levels of integration. This is especially true for SAP and Microsoft, both among Salesforce’s biggest competitors.

    The partnerships builds on a joint commitment by the two companies, and will see Teams integrated with SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Customer Experience.

    “New ways of working, collaborating and interacting completely transform how we operate,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE and member of the Executive Board. “By integrating Microsoft Teams across our solution portfolio, we will bring collaboration to the next level, jointly determining the future of work and enabling the frictionless enterprise. Our trusted partnership with Microsoft is focused on continuously advancing customer success. That’s why we are also expanding interoperability with Azure.”

    “The case for digital transformation has never been more urgent,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “By bringing together the power of Azure and Teams with SAP’s solutions, we will help more organizations harness the power of the cloud so they can more quickly adapt and innovate going forward.”

    The new integrations are expected to be available in mid-2021.