The strategy, Microsoft executives and analysts say, has
been key to the company's rise in the cloud computing infrastructure market,
which research firm Gartner estimates hit $64.3 billion and where Microsoft is
second only to market leader Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services. Microsoft last
week said revenue from Azure, its flagship cloud offering, grew 48%, results
that helped it overtake Apple Inc as the world's most valuable publicly traded
company.
Microsoft's strategy has involved constructing its most
lucrative cloud software services, such as database tools, so that they can run
inside its own data centers, those owned by customers or even those of rivals
like Amazon.
Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence chief Scott
Guthrie told Reuters that the move has persuaded some customers to use its
services when they cannot always use Microsoft's data centers. Royal Bank of
Canada, Guthrie said, faces legal requirements to keep some of its computing
work in its own data centers and uses a technology called Azure Arc to connect
those facilities to Microsoft's cloud.
"The challenge with higher-level services historically
has been the concern of 'lock in' - what happens if I can only use them in your
data center?" Guthrie said. "That freedom of movement causes customers
to feel much more comfortable using those services."
Ed Anderson, a vice president distinguished analyst with
Gartner, said the approach does open doors for Microsoft with customers, but it
also forces the company to compete on the quality of its software services
rather than by packaging them with cheap computing power.
"To be honest, that's a better way to compete,"
Anderson said. "Customers are suspicious of rhetoric. They look for
evidence of capabilities and are cautious of things where in principle
technology is multi-cloud but maybe the software licensing doesn't support
it." -Reuters
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