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.
Highlights
00:12 — Over the past couple of years, a valuable factor in the greatest growth market has been the rise of partner ecosystems. There has been an intense focus on channel partners now more than ever before.
00:43 — Microsoft has been a leader in this field. Since its inception, Microsoft has reported significant revenue through its partners. The company has combined its cloud positioning and partner system. Further, it has renamed its partner program to the Cloud Partner Program.
01:20 — Aaron Back shared an analysis on this, and Bob suggests there are four trends around these topics, one trend being the economics of the cloud.
01:42 — In 2021, Microsoft’s total revenue was about $185 billion, and its cloud revenue at $80 billion. With approximately 43% of its total revenue from the cloud, Microsoft’s biggest and fastest-growing part of the business is clearly the cloud. The company is aligning its future where the big growth opportunities are.
02:07 — There is also an evolution of partner ecosystems happening.
02:29 — The cloud total addressable market is booming. For instance, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, said that while the cloud is currently about 5% of GDP, it’s soon going to be 10%. The partner programs are essential to companies, including Microsoft, to address this enormous growth and market opportunity.
02:56 — This switch is now around customer-centric approaches and getting partners fully aligned with what the customers need throughout the lifecycle.
03:20 — In taking advantage of cloud opportunities, other big cloud vendors will likely follow Microsoft’s lead and advance their partner programs.