Microsoft investment in Business Applications includes massive dev team growth, says GM

Microsoft's commitment to Dynamics 365 and business applications as a "third leg of the stool" along with Azure and Office 365 can be seen through a growing R&D team and more marketing investment.

But it hasn't resulted in new office space yet.

These insights and more come from Microsoft Business Applications general manager Charles Lamanna, who talked to Microsoft MVP Steve Mordue in a recently published podcast. In the interview, he talked about his team's plans in a range of areas, from PowerApps and the Unified Client Interface to the grand vision of the Open Data Interface and the role of Azure Data Lake.

The Dynamics team is still working "in a barn" on a satellite campus in Redmond, Lamanna said, but Microsoft has made its commitment to the Business Applications group evident in other ways, including major growth in the team. Lamanna described the Business Applications team as growing its engineering team more than 300%. He explained: