Ever since Satya Nadella became CEO, their push of their cloud solutions has been significant and tangible. From enterprise through consumer solutions, the Microsoft Cloud is everywhere. Here are just a few examples:
- Microsoft Cloud commercials, referencing the Lotus F1 race team and the city of Barcelona and featuring Microsoft Dynamics, Azure, Lync, and Office 365 have been running non-stop in major markets.
- Ads for the Microsoft Cloud plaster the walls in such high profile airports as Washington and Atlanta.
- An Office 365 account is now used in much the same way a Google or iPhone account has been for anything from Windows 8 desktop syncing to One Drive access to Bing search rewards.
- One Drive file storage, which is part of the Office 365 package, is being increased from 25 GB to 1 TB.
- Lync is now the fastest growing phone and unified communication platform in North America. In two years it has gone from essentially no presence to third behind industry leaders Cisco and Avaya. At the rate it is growing, it could overtake them in just a year or two.
And the list could go on and on. This was not surprising to anyone given that Nadella had been Executive Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise group prior to taking over as CEO. But it signals a significant shift and maturity in cloud services. Given the brand recognition Microsoft enjoys, the degree to which its Office products are integrated into corporate and personal life, and the degree to which the Microsoft Cloud is delivering integration between all of its products, cloud services have just moved from the server room and the development offices of large to mid-size companies to the cubicle and living room of virtually everyone.
More to come on this significant shift and game changer in the cloud space. Suffice it to say, we wouldn’t be surprised if in the next three years most people you know have an Office 365 account and many are using Lync for the communications platform.