A Close Look At Microsoft's Azure Cloud, Part 1: Cloud Computing

Microsoft launched its cloud platform, Azure, in 2010. Since the launch, the service has posted triple-digit growth, and in the last fiscal year the platform reported a growth rate of 102%. Considering the latest quarterly results, in which the company claimed that its intelligent cloud revenue grew a 5.6% year over year, we estimate that the annual revenue run rate for Azure can be close to $2.5 billion.  Azure, currently, is the only major cloud platform that is consistently ranked as a leade...