Microsoft gears up its cloud offering

With chief executive Satya Nadella stressing a productivity-and-platform agenda for software company Microsoft, a segment in which the firm wants to lead is cloud computing, with offerings under Microsoft Azure.

Independent analysts say though Microsoft in India is yet to catch up with Amazon Web Services, the aggression shown by the company in gaining market share recently is evident. For Microsoft, Azure is a $20-billion revenue business and emerging markets such as India seem growth drivers.

Microsoft will hold its second cloud conference in India on March 18-19, in Pune. More than 1,500 business leaders, software developers, technology enthusiasts, information technology professionals, customers and users of the Microsoft Azure platform are expected to attend the conference. The content from the conference is estimated to reach 100,000 people through webinars, partner-led sessions, social outreach and engagement with user-group communities, etc.

The company has already announced it will set up three data centres in India by the end of 2015.

The decision to hold the event in Pune is significant: The city has more than a fifth of India's software start-ups and most start-ups in this city focus on enterprise technology.

While Microsoft has been targeting the enterprise and the small and medium enterprises (SME) segments, it is also leveraging its presence in the start-up ecosystem, through Microsoft Accelerator. So far, 63 start-ups have graduated from its Accelerator programme, with 67 per cent being funded.

Tyler Bryson, general manager (marketing and operations), Microsoft India, says for start-ups getting on the cloud platform is a great proposition, as this is an opex (operational expenditure) model, with little upfront investment.

Microsoft has partnered Reliance Industries for its accelerator programme, GenNext Ventures.

“India is a significant player for the Azure platform. Not only because of the customer base, but also because of the huge application developers,” Bryson said.

The company is working towards taking the Azure platform to many users, through various channels. In Pune, it has initiated a programme called Azure Café, in partnership with Cafe Coffee Day outlets. Through this initiative, business leaders and members of the information technology and cloud ecosystem can meet and discuss trends. Through the next six weeks, this initiative will host learning and exchange sessions.

According to data released by Microsoft last year, the company has added about 2,000 customers every month to its cloud computing services.

“Microsoft Azure has seen more than 300 enhancements in the past year alone. This rapid pace of innovation has fuelled excitement and enthusiasm across the entire cloud ecosystem,” said Bryson.

“Microsoft Azure has been developed and built by Satya Nadella. So, the focus will be obvious. The company has been pushing hard in this segment. It has also introduced the Azure SQL database and the Azure Machine Learning, among others. It has been trying to enter the enterprise segment with the Azure platform, as enterprises have been its strength. But it’s going to take some time before enterprises get on this platform,” said an analyst, on condition of anonymity.

As of now, Microsoft Azure has a network of 1,800 independent software vendors and 10,000 cloud solutions partners in India. Add to this, the two-day conference will showcase the best of cloud solutions for businesses, technical content and expert views on Microsoft Azure cloud platform.