Since Microsoft took the wrappers off its two Azure datacentres in Sydney and Melbourne 12 months ago, the vendor has experienced market growth across many industries.
Microsoft Australia Cloud and enterprise business group lead, Toby Bowers, said the past year has seen a significant uptake of its Cloud platform across industries such as public sector, financial services, start-ups and education. About 40 per cent of Azure usage stems from SMBs, ISVs and start-ups.
Globally, Bowers said, it has also seen significant growth with more than 85 per cent of Fortune 500 companies using Microsoft Azure, clocking up more than 93,000 new Azure subscriptions each month.
To support this growth, Microsoft has been in hiring mode and has tripled the size of its Azure team locally to include a new team of Cloud architects.
Bowers said it was also investing in its partners with technical resources, training and certification.
Adding to this, is a program for customers to test the Azure platform for their business environment.
“We’re seeing more customers taking advantage of the higher level of services available through Azure to drive business transformation, open new markets and disrupt industries,” Bowers said.
A prime example is Perth-based Microsoft partner, Ignia that been working with start-up Scancam, which developed a system built on the Azure platform, using video cameras and licence plate recognition technology to help solve the problem of theft at the petrol station through identification of wrong-doers, reporting automation and recovery of money.
Talent management software company, Seera, also uses the Azure platform and develops about 10 to 15 new features per week for its talent management software, filing 14 provisional patents and plans to expand into Asia and Europe using the Azure platform.
