FYI the author of the article runs a PR firm and is known for publishing PR pieces masquerading as journalism, e.g. <a href="https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-accurate-was-forbes-on-aws-ibm-microsoft-and-google-in-the-cloud/" rel="nofollow">https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-accurate-was-forbes-o...</a><p>that particular article is a critique of the same author doing a similar spin job for IBM's cloud.<p>one thing noted in that article (and has been noted elsewhere) is that microsoft lumps things like Office365 in their "cloud revenue" which would greatly mask the size of Azure vs. AWS
I think Microsoft also adds their Office 365 subscription revenue in their cloud revenue and AWS doesn't. So it's not apples to apples comparison imo.
Basically, the title of this post and its premise is just very wrong. Microsoft includes Office 365, LinkedIn and probably GitHub in its "cloud" revenue. AWS "cloud" revenue is not remotely comparable.<p>> MSFT: "Our commercial cloud revenue, which includes Office 365 Commercial, Azure, the commercial portion of LinkedIn, Dynamics 365, and other commercial cloud properties, was $16.7 billion and $31.9 billion for the three and six months ended December 31, 2020, respectively, and $12.5 billion and $24.1 billion for the three and six months ended December 31, 2019, respectively. These amounts are primarily included in Office products and cloud services, Server products and cloud services, and LinkedIn in the table above."
<a href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000156459021002316/msft-10q_20201231.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/789019/00015...</a>
I don't understand why people have so many issues with Microsoft including Office 365 subscriptions in their Cloud revenue. If you have tried managing a tenant you would know that Office 365 subscriptions work pretty much like any other SaaS offering. They just happen to have desktop clients that are better than their online counterparts.
Its about messaging and existing channels.
Microsoft has a rich ecosystem of VARs and System Integrators and they are effectively leveraging these channels to reach the CIO and IT executives.<p>AWS relies on word of mouth - in organizations where developers and architechts have a say in infrastrucurue -- its always AWS. Sadly , for AWS, only executives have this power in large companies and they will always choose Microsoft.
this whole thing is kind of a fun accounting game. If Google used google cloud for its own internal services (adsense, gmail, etc), and billed the different teams, everyone would be talking about the newest cloud leader.