Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily news and commentary show, hosted by Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the Cloud.
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In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob Evans reviews Workday’s Q4 earnings results which highlight the company’s strong subscription growth rate and “booming” total subscription backlog.
Highlights
00:40 — Workday released its Q4 numbers and Bob notes two things that “jumped out:”
- Workday’s subscription growth rate in Q4 was quite strong
- Evidence of a “booming total subscription backlog”
01:06 — Workday’s subscription revenue in Q4, which is different from its total revenue, was up 21.7% to $1.5 billion.
01:24 — Looking at the growth rates for Workday’s subscription revenue over the last five quarters, the company has been very consistent:
- Q4: 21.7%
- Q3: 22.3%
- Q2: 22.8%
- Q1: 23.2%
- Q4 of fiscal 2022: 22.2%
02:09 — Additionally, the growth rates of Workday’s total subscription backlog have been rising over the last several quarters. For the most recent quarter, it was up 28.4% to $16.5 billion. Over the last five quarters, Workday’s total subscription backlog grew:
- Q4: 28.4%
- Q3: 28.5%
- Q2: 27.4%
- Q1: 25.5%
- Q4 of fiscal 2022: 26.9%
03:00 — Bob adds that he was impressed with co-CEO Carl Eschenbach’s comments that these growth rates put Workday “on a path to becoming one of the world’s largest and most profitable software companies.” Bob says Workday has “earned the right to step out,” after being so restrained in things.
