Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud results soar as the world goes digital

Both Microsoft and Google have issued strong quarterly results driven by a healthy increase in revenues of their respective cloud computing divisions.  

Microsoft Cloud generated $20.7 billion in revenue for Q3 2021, which is an year on year increase of 36%, driven by a 50% growth in Azure and other cloud services revenue.

Similarly, Google Cloud revenues neared $5 billion thanks to a 45% jump, while operating loss narrowed to $644 million from $1.21 billion a year ago.  

“As the digital transformation and shift to hybrid work continue, our cloud services are helping organizations collaborate and stay secure,” observed Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, though the same holds true for Microsoft and Azure as well.

Intelligent cloud

In terms of overall revenues, Google reported an income of $65.1 billion in the quarter, while Microsoft clocked in $45.3 billion.

Both however credit the increased adoption of their respective cloud services as the driving force behind the impressive growths.

While Pichai touted Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics prowess, Microsoft pinned the growth to the increased focus on its cloud-based services, which it refers to as the “intelligent cloud.”

Microsoft’s results showed that revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $17 billion, an increase of 31%. The company also registered an increase of 23% in sales of commercial Office 365 subscriptions, while consumer Microsoft 365 subscriptions increased to 54.1 million. 

Google Cloud clubs revenues generated from both Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services and Google Workspace collaboration tools. However, SDXCentral notes that during an earnings call, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said GCP’s revenue “was again above cloud overall, reflecting significant growth in both infrastructure and platform services,”

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