Microsoft Says “Leading with the Cloud” Is Top Fiscal 2011 Business Goal

Microsoft placed a giant exclamation point on its cloud services, telling securities analysts that "leading with the cloud" is its top business goal for the fiscal year that began July 1, ahead even of number-two goal "driving Windows 7 and Office 2010 Refresh."

"We are the market leader in cloud services for business," asserted Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, in a presentation to securities analysts today. Moreover, emphasizing the cloud "allows us to sell more on-premises products than ever before." He added that the Microsoft Business Division is "the least publicized and the most profitable part of our business."

He said Microsoft is outflanking its chief competitors in the business arena--Google, Salesforce.com, and Amazon.com, among global providers; and VMware among service providers.

In one slide summarizing Microsoft's cloud services for business, Turner said the main business application driving usage is Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Business users are also making use of Microsoft Office, Office Live Meeting, SharePoint Online, and Exchange Online, among others, with Azure the most common platform.

Turner displayed several slides in his presentations showing "Microsoft Online Services wins" with such major corporations as Hyatt, Home Depot, McDonald's, Pitney Bowes, American Express, Philips, Dow, and Tyco. He presented the wins as evidence of "Microsoft cloud productivity momentum."

He added that Microsoft has made major inroads in the education market with its cloud services, winning business from the University of California, Davis; the University of Georgia; the Kentucky Department of Education, and Kaplan University, among others.

The Windows Azure platform has had a number of wins as well, he said, including at 3M, Accenture, Avanade, Siemens, PayPal, ...