Microsoft’s Cloud Business Could Get Bigger After This Move

Microsoft’s Cloud Business Could Get Bigger After This Move

Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) cloud computing business is growing in leaps and bounds as it is pulling out all stops to wrest market share from market leader Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). The company's strategy of cutting prices and adding capabilities such as artificial intelligence and better security has worked wonders for it so far. In fact, Microsoft's public cloud service jumped to 7.1% market share in 2016, up from 5.8% the previous year, according to Gartner, while Amazon continued to lead the field with 44.2% market share. 

What's more, Microsoft has sustained its ascent in the cloud computing space this year. Its cloud computing revenue shot up 14% year over year to $6.9 billion during the recently reported first quarter, driven by a 90% jump in Azure revenue to an estimated $1.3 billion. This was far better than the 42% jump in rival Amazon's revenue from its public cloud computing business -- Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- which pulled in $4.58 billion in revenue last quarter.

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Source: Fool.com