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Microsoft Commercial and Enterprise CVP to analysts: Aggressive cloud investment can co-exist with customers' hybrid, on-prem interests

by Dann Anthony Maurno
Assistant Editor, MSDW

Perhaps Microsoft's cloud-first strategy seems to some like a runaway train, leaving partners and slower-moving customers on the platforms with their "baggage" of on-premise products and expertise.

Or, perhaps that's not the full story. Microsoft's appearance at last week's Credit Suisse 21st Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference reveals more forethought and learning than that. There, the company's CVP & CFO for Commercial and Enterprise Dave O'Hara, whose territory includes Office, Dynamics, AI, and Research, answered questions by Credit Suisse Analyst Michael Nemeroff.

As O'Hara observed many times in the interview, he offers a CFO's perspective; he is not one of Microsoft's frequent keynote speakers like Judson Althoff, James Phillips, or Toni Townes-Whitley.

But O'Hara offers a healthy understanding of enterprise software and the partner ecosystems. He joined Microsoft in 2001 as part of the acquisition of Great Plains Software, where he was a VP. Over the years he has transitioned from the Dynamics business to be CFO of the online business, CFO for Office and then Cloud and Enterprise and finally, all of them together. As Nemeroff summarized, "So, basically everything that grows at Microsoft is what you're responsible for."

Following are a selection of his forward-looking observations from the Credit Suisse interview about Microsoft's market position, now and over the next decade, based on a SeekingAlpha transcription.  

Expect a five- to ten-year hybrid transition to cloud

Hybrid is absolutely "where it's at" for Microsoft for the next 10 years, possibly, says O'Hara.

"Some  of the numbers I've seen is that like 10% of the workloads are in the [public] cloud...so, I think we still have lots of opportunity [...

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About Dann Anthony Maurno

Dann Anthony Maurno is a seasoned business journalist who began his career as International Marketing Manager with Lilly Software, then moved on as a freelancer to write for such prestigious clients as CFO Magazine; Compliance Week;Manufacturing Business Technology; Decision Resources, Inc.; The Economist Intelligence Unit; and corporate clients such as Iron Mountain, Microsoft and SAP. He is the co-author of Thin Air: How Wireless Technology Supports Lean Initiatives(CRC/Productivity Press, 2010).

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