Microsoft execs: Grand cloud vision will advance business app strategy

Microsoft saw 49% growth in its Dynamics 365 cloud solutions in the most recent quarter, and company executives this week reiterated that the progress on any one product line should be seen in the context of a more holistic cloud strategy.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said this week that he believes the company must remain focused on an over-arching cloud vision, even as the product and industry teams compete for market share. In an interview with CNBC, he used the example of frontline workers using Teams both communicate and run applications:

For us, it all comes down to the Microsoft cloud. One of the things I've always maintained for the last seven-plus years is we don't make our decisions, whether it is the capital investment, or whether it is even the individual product categories that we compete in as separate categories, but all coming together. Even if you take, say, what happens when you deploy Teams, one of the first things you do, in fact the increase of usage of Teams in the first line has gone through over triple digits. So if you think about that, it's not just about communication. The first line people who are working are not only communicating with headquarters folks using messaging but are also using applications that are integrated into their workflow. So Power Apps is being used along with Teams, and of course Power Apps is built on Azure databases. So to me building out the continuity from infrastructure to SaaS, with security, with great tooling, that's the

 Microsoft value proposition and we are differentiated. And we want to compete in each category on its own, but if somebody asks me what's the differentiation of Microsoft, it's the Microsoft cloud all the way from business applications to Teams and Microsoft 365 to Azure and everything in between.

Microsoft corporate vice president for industry, apps, and data marketing Alysa Taylor shared with analysts at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference 2021 this week that her role reflects the same company vision of continuity.