10 ms·

Microsoft Cloud Strength Highlights Second Quarter Results

105 points by theatraine 11y ago

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- fname 11y ago
  > Personally, I'd never put a MS project between me and the cloud, or my data and the cloud Why?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - greggyb 11y ago
      Realistically I think that the last field, Vulnerabilities / Product, is the one of more interest here. Rates are much more informative than absolutes. I'd be more concerned using a Canonical product based on the data you've shared than a Microsoft product.
- nivla 11y ago
  >"cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and services that could reduce revenue or lead to liability" should be at the top of the list. Could you point out any program or OS that could guarantee neither of these? Based on what I have seen all major OSes and programs have these issue regardless of whether it is closed source or open source. Besides how do expect them to quantify such unforeseeable events on their accounting statements?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - nl 11y ago
      independent research does show that users of GNU/Linux systems in particular, or UNIX, OpenVSD, are safer to some degree. Could you point me to that research?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- rodgerd 11y ago
  This is a religious, not a technical position.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- amlgsmsn 11y ago
  From Red Hat's earning statement: >Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: ...risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities.. >Security breaches and data loss may expose us to liability, harm our reputation and adversely affect our business. >Our business involves the production and distribution of enterprise software technologies, as well as hosting applications. As part of our business, we (or third parties with whom we contract) receive, store and process our data, as well as our customers’ and partners’ data. >While we take security and testing measures relating to our offerings and operations, those measures may not prevent security breaches and data loss that could harm our business or the businesses of our customers and partners. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography, inadequate technology or facility security measures or other factors may result in data loss or a compromise or breach of our systems and the data we receive, store and process (or systems and the data received, stored and processed by third parties with whom we contract). >These security measures may be breached or data lost as a result of actions by third parties, employee error (such as weak passwords or unencrypted devices), malfeasance or vulnerabilities or security bugs found in software code. A party who is able to circumvent security measures or exploit inadequacies in security measures, could, among other things, misappropriate proprietary information (including information about our employees, customers and partners, our customers’ information, financial data and data that others could use to compete against us), cause the loss or disclosure of some or all of this information, cause interruptions or denial of service in our or our customers’ operations, cause delays in development efforts or expose customers (and their customers) to computer viruses or other disruptions or vulnerabilities. >A compromise to these systems could remain undetected for an extended period of time, exacerbating the impact of that compromise. These risks may increase as we continue to grow our cloud and services offerings and as we receive, store and process more of our customers’ data. Actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to regulatory investigations, claims against us by customers, partners or other third parties, or costs, such as those related to providing customer notifications and fraud monitoring. While our customer agreements typically contain provisions that seek to limit our liability, there is no assurance these provisions will be enforceable and effective under applicable law. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant. >Moreover, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any loss of data or compromise of our systems or the data we receive, store or process (or systems and the data received, stored and processed by third parties with whom we contract) could result in a loss of confidence in the security of our offerings, damage our reputation, loss of channel or strategic partners, lead to legal liability and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. And their investor site is worryingly running on Cold Fusion of all things. So I guess you'd not use Linux too, since Red Hat is one of the major contributors to the Linux kernel and server apps?
simonebrunozzi 11y ago
Most of Azure's revenue is inflated. It is actually fake revenue, subsidized into ELA deals. Heavily. If you talk to customers, all they're using is AWS, and some breadcrumbs of Azure here and there. I don't know how they're even allowed to present financials this way.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  So I'm supposed to trust an anecdotal "everyone actually uses AWS" comment over an official earnings report?
  - bedhead 11y ago
    I dont know about ELA deals but Azure is something like 15-20% of the size of AWS based on other various data points. My BS detector also went off about their $9b run-rate comment.
    - adventured 11y ago
      They didn't claim Azure was at $9 billion. They said "commercial cloud." They use different terms for them, whether one thinks that is meant to be intentionally confusing is another matter. The only number they claimed on Azure, was 140% growth: "Azure revenue grew 140% in constant currency with revenue from Azure premium services growing nearly 3x year-over-year"
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - bitmapbrother 11y ago
    He has a valid point. Steve Ballmer even called them out on their bullshit/creative Azure accounting.
- spydum 11y ago
  I didnt see, but do they include Office365 (hosted exchange/sharepoint) in the Cloud revenue? If so, I could totally see that skyrocketing.
CryoLogic 11y ago
Some how these numbers are higher than AWS's numbers in the same quarter. Something weird is going on. Are they lumping other MS products which run in the Azure cloud into this figure? Office 365, etc?
- tacos 11y ago
  "The cloud annualized revenue run rate—a conjectural number that former CEO Steve Ballmer described as "bullshit"—across all commercial offerings now stands at $9.4 billion, reflecting growth both in Office 365 and Azure." http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/cloud-surface-are-the-highlights-of-microsofts-23-8-billion-quarter/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/cloud-surface-are-th...
- AdamTReineke 11y ago
  The 10Q has more on this, search for the section titled "Note 18" on business segments. http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid=MSFT&docid=11131896 http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid...
twunde 11y ago
Is anyone here actually using Azure? My teammates using it have encountered all types of problems, with bad stability problems (worse than rackspace and their bimonthly outages)
- partiallypro 11y ago
  I use Azure and prefer it to AWS. You can get managed Azure or AWS solutions through Rackspace too, if you don't want to rely on Rackspace natively. Anyhow, Microsoft's revenue is exploding in this space mostly because it lumps in Office 365; not really because of Azure itself, which I think is a great product. Azure has a few short falls that are annoying...still preferable to AWS though. AWS is still very popular with extremely popular apps which drive its revenue lines. Netflix, Tinder, etc all use AWS. However from my experience with Azure they could lower their cost if they had Azure installs, AWS likes to keep instances up and spinning which eats into your costs (and they are enormous) Azure has better auto-scaling and it shows. I can't bare to imagine how much Amazon makes off of Netflix's AWS usage, you'd think they'd want to get off of their competitor's platform...but I guess it costs a lot to migrate.
- Maarten88 11y ago
  I do, and think it's a good proposition for startups. Office 365 makes it easy to setup the organisational IT (login based on your own domain, email, storage, document collaboration, chat). Add Power BI if you need fancy (realtime) analytics and charts. Then you create a private git repository (using the same login) for your startup product and configure continuous deployment using Visual Studio Online and Azure. Most of the Visual Studio Services are node-based now, so it's cross-platform and you can deploy to Linux too. It's also easy to add other services if you want (Slack, Zoho, Google). All this is managed with a single login, paid with only two bills (Office 365 and Azure are separate). The Azure bill can be lowered if you get into BizSpark. This all saves a lot of work, a single person can create and manage a very advanced infrastructure without too much effort.
  - redwood 11y ago
    I think the question meant... for running applications with real workloads. IaaS
mrmondo 11y ago
This has to be inflated, I've heard of people trying azure but not actually using it. I've heard from two groups that tried it recently that there were pretty dreadful problems with unexplained outages or unexplained poor IO performance.
- adventured 11y ago
  Inflated? It has been quarter after quarter after quarter. This isn't a new result. It's very clearly not inflated. Azure is the #2 competitor to AWS at this point. Their quarterly results have been telling the tale of this build-up for the past two years. AWS just grew by nearly 70%, and is quite a lot larger than Azure. It's not surprising that Azure would continue to grow so fast. There seems to be a lot of confusion here about the Microsoft report. Nowhere in that report did they split out Azure sales, only "commercial cloud" ($9.4b annual run-rate) and "intelligent cloud" ($6.3b sales). The sole thing they were specific about regarding Azure, is 140% sales growth.
  - arethuza 11y ago
    I think the point is that Microsoft's cloud services are rather more than Azure (even though Office 365 and Dynamics CRM share bits of Azure infrastructure such as AAD).
mark_l_watson 11y ago
I run most of my stuff on Azure. I am part of the Bizspark program which includes a generous free Azure allowance. Yes, I am grateful for that. That said, in the past I have also used AWS and Google cloud services a lot, and I don't really have strong opinions about which features of these three services that I like best. One thing that I do have a strong opinion on is the extremely high value of Office 365 for $99/year for the family plan. Everything works fine. We use just a bit of OneDrive storage but having all of the apps run on all of our devices is useful. On Linux, I just use the web versions.

105 points by theatraine 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

fname 11y ago
> Personally, I'd never put a MS project between me and the cloud, or my data and the cloud Why?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - greggyb 11y ago
    Realistically I think that the last field, Vulnerabilities / Product, is the one of more interest here. Rates are much more informative than absolutes. I'd be more concerned using a Canonical product based on the data you've shared than a Microsoft product.
nivla 11y ago
>"cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and services that could reduce revenue or lead to liability" should be at the top of the list. Could you point out any program or OS that could guarantee neither of these? Based on what I have seen all major OSes and programs have these issue regardless of whether it is closed source or open source. Besides how do expect them to quantify such unforeseeable events on their accounting statements?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - nl 11y ago
    independent research does show that users of GNU/Linux systems in particular, or UNIX, OpenVSD, are safer to some degree. Could you point me to that research?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
rodgerd 11y ago
This is a religious, not a technical position.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
amlgsmsn 11y ago
From Red Hat's earning statement: >Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: ...risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities.. >Security breaches and data loss may expose us to liability, harm our reputation and adversely affect our business. >Our business involves the production and distribution of enterprise software technologies, as well as hosting applications. As part of our business, we (or third parties with whom we contract) receive, store and process our data, as well as our customers’ and partners’ data. >While we take security and testing measures relating to our offerings and operations, those measures may not prevent security breaches and data loss that could harm our business or the businesses of our customers and partners. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography, inadequate technology or facility security measures or other factors may result in data loss or a compromise or breach of our systems and the data we receive, store and process (or systems and the data received, stored and processed by third parties with whom we contract). >These security measures may be breached or data lost as a result of actions by third parties, employee error (such as weak passwords or unencrypted devices), malfeasance or vulnerabilities or security bugs found in software code. A party who is able to circumvent security measures or exploit inadequacies in security measures, could, among other things, misappropriate proprietary information (including information about our employees, customers and partners, our customers’ information, financial data and data that others could use to compete against us), cause the loss or disclosure of some or all of this information, cause interruptions or denial of service in our or our customers’ operations, cause delays in development efforts or expose customers (and their customers) to computer viruses or other disruptions or vulnerabilities. >A compromise to these systems could remain undetected for an extended period of time, exacerbating the impact of that compromise. These risks may increase as we continue to grow our cloud and services offerings and as we receive, store and process more of our customers’ data. Actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to regulatory investigations, claims against us by customers, partners or other third parties, or costs, such as those related to providing customer notifications and fraud monitoring. While our customer agreements typically contain provisions that seek to limit our liability, there is no assurance these provisions will be enforceable and effective under applicable law. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant. >Moreover, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any loss of data or compromise of our systems or the data we receive, store or process (or systems and the data received, stored and processed by third parties with whom we contract) could result in a loss of confidence in the security of our offerings, damage our reputation, loss of channel or strategic partners, lead to legal liability and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. And their investor site is worryingly running on Cold Fusion of all things. So I guess you'd not use Linux too, since Red Hat is one of the major contributors to the Linux kernel and server apps?

simonebrunozzi 11y ago

Most of Azure's revenue is inflated. It is actually fake revenue, subsidized into ELA deals. Heavily. If you talk to customers, all they're using is AWS, and some breadcrumbs of Azure here and there. I don't know how they're even allowed to present financials this way.

edgyswingset 11y ago
So I'm supposed to trust an anecdotal "everyone actually uses AWS" comment over an official earnings report?
- bedhead 11y ago
  I dont know about ELA deals but Azure is something like 15-20% of the size of AWS based on other various data points. My BS detector also went off about their $9b run-rate comment.
  - adventured 11y ago
    They didn't claim Azure was at $9 billion. They said "commercial cloud." They use different terms for them, whether one thinks that is meant to be intentionally confusing is another matter. The only number they claimed on Azure, was 140% growth: "Azure revenue grew 140% in constant currency with revenue from Azure premium services growing nearly 3x year-over-year"
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- bitmapbrother 11y ago
  He has a valid point. Steve Ballmer even called them out on their bullshit/creative Azure accounting.
spydum 11y ago
I didnt see, but do they include Office365 (hosted exchange/sharepoint) in the Cloud revenue? If so, I could totally see that skyrocketing.

CryoLogic 11y ago

Some how these numbers are higher than AWS's numbers in the same quarter. Something weird is going on. Are they lumping other MS products which run in the Azure cloud into this figure? Office 365, etc?

tacos 11y ago
"The cloud annualized revenue run rate—a conjectural number that former CEO Steve Ballmer described as "bullshit"—across all commercial offerings now stands at $9.4 billion, reflecting growth both in Office 365 and Azure." http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/cloud-surface-are-the-highlights-of-microsofts-23-8-billion-quarter/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/cloud-surface-are-th...
AdamTReineke 11y ago
The 10Q has more on this, search for the section titled "Note 18" on business segments. http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid=MSFT&docid=11131896 http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid...

twunde 11y ago

Is anyone here actually using Azure? My teammates using it have encountered all types of problems, with bad stability problems (worse than rackspace and their bimonthly outages)

partiallypro 11y ago
I use Azure and prefer it to AWS. You can get managed Azure or AWS solutions through Rackspace too, if you don't want to rely on Rackspace natively. Anyhow, Microsoft's revenue is exploding in this space mostly because it lumps in Office 365; not really because of Azure itself, which I think is a great product. Azure has a few short falls that are annoying...still preferable to AWS though. AWS is still very popular with extremely popular apps which drive its revenue lines. Netflix, Tinder, etc all use AWS. However from my experience with Azure they could lower their cost if they had Azure installs, AWS likes to keep instances up and spinning which eats into your costs (and they are enormous) Azure has better auto-scaling and it shows. I can't bare to imagine how much Amazon makes off of Netflix's AWS usage, you'd think they'd want to get off of their competitor's platform...but I guess it costs a lot to migrate.
Maarten88 11y ago
I do, and think it's a good proposition for startups. Office 365 makes it easy to setup the organisational IT (login based on your own domain, email, storage, document collaboration, chat). Add Power BI if you need fancy (realtime) analytics and charts. Then you create a private git repository (using the same login) for your startup product and configure continuous deployment using Visual Studio Online and Azure. Most of the Visual Studio Services are node-based now, so it's cross-platform and you can deploy to Linux too. It's also easy to add other services if you want (Slack, Zoho, Google). All this is managed with a single login, paid with only two bills (Office 365 and Azure are separate). The Azure bill can be lowered if you get into BizSpark. This all saves a lot of work, a single person can create and manage a very advanced infrastructure without too much effort.
- redwood 11y ago
  I think the question meant... for running applications with real workloads. IaaS

mrmondo 11y ago

This has to be inflated, I've heard of people trying azure but not actually using it. I've heard from two groups that tried it recently that there were pretty dreadful problems with unexplained outages or unexplained poor IO performance.

adventured 11y ago
Inflated? It has been quarter after quarter after quarter. This isn't a new result. It's very clearly not inflated. Azure is the #2 competitor to AWS at this point. Their quarterly results have been telling the tale of this build-up for the past two years. AWS just grew by nearly 70%, and is quite a lot larger than Azure. It's not surprising that Azure would continue to grow so fast. There seems to be a lot of confusion here about the Microsoft report. Nowhere in that report did they split out Azure sales, only "commercial cloud" ($9.4b annual run-rate) and "intelligent cloud" ($6.3b sales). The sole thing they were specific about regarding Azure, is 140% sales growth.
- arethuza 11y ago
  I think the point is that Microsoft's cloud services are rather more than Azure (even though Office 365 and Dynamics CRM share bits of Azure infrastructure such as AAD).

mark_l_watson 11y ago

I run most of my stuff on Azure. I am part of the Bizspark program which includes a generous free Azure allowance. Yes, I am grateful for that. That said, in the past I have also used AWS and Google cloud services a lot, and I don't really have strong opinions about which features of these three services that I like best. One thing that I do have a strong opinion on is the extremely high value of Office 365 for $99/year for the family plan. Everything works fine. We use just a bit of OneDrive storage but having all of the apps run on all of our devices is useful. On Linux, I just use the web versions.