Microsoft\u2019s Momentum. It was not that long ago that\u00a0Microsoft seemed\u00a0on track\u00a0to take a\u00a0more\u00a0secondary role in the future of enterprise technology. Software sales had been sluggish for some time,\u00a0and the company\u00a0seemed\u00a0unable to keep up with the pace of innovation of its\u00a0competitors. Well,\u00a0things change quickly, especially in IT.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To the surprise of some, Microsoft\u00a0has managed to bounce back\u00a0in just a few years. It has delivered\u00a0its finest OS to date,\u00a0Windows 10,\u00a0created a\u00a0new line of successful hardware products like the Surface, and become one of the top contenders in the cloud wars.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u00a0look\u00a0at the most recent\u00a0developments and headlines involving the U.S. company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We have\u00a0recently discussed\u00a0how\u00a0the surge in remote work caused by COVID-19\u00a0has helped the cloud industry<\/a>. Microsoft is, of course, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current\u00a0situation. Finding itself\u00a0incredibly well-positioned\u00a0with cloud collaboration tools ranging from Azure to Microsoft Teams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Redmond, Virginia\u00a0company\u00a0just posted\u00a0its Q3 2020 earnings,\u00a0delivering 59% growth\u00a0for\u00a0Azure\u00a0sales<\/a>\u00a0and taking its share of the global cloud market\u00a0up to a 17%<\/a>. The\u00a0second place\u00a0after\u00a0Amazon.\u00a0This steady expansion is forcing\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0to\u00a0grow\u00a0their\u00a0overall cloud\u00a0infrastructure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The company announced this week it will be\u00a0investing\u00a0billions of dollars in\u00a0new data centers in\u00a0Poland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0New Zealand<\/a>.\u00a0It also\u00a0presented\u00a0an upcoming\u00a0— and significant \u2013 update to\u00a0the\u00a0integration of\u00a0VMware\u00a0cloud solutions into Azure<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Microsoft is betting big not only on cloud infrastructure and third-party support. But also on cloud security \u2013 a\u00a0major concern<\/a>\u00a0for the modern digital enterprise.\u00a0The company\u00a0revealed\u00a0this week\u00a0a new hacking challenge for\u00a0Azure Sphere<\/a>. Promising a total of $200K in bounty for those who\u00a0can\u00a0break into the system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s been almost a year since Microsoft released its last big update for Windows 10. The company\u00a0announced\u00a0no\u00a0major upgrades or changes<\/a>\u00a0for the upcoming May 2020 update. Furthermore,\u00a0and\u00a0in response to the global pandemic, as of May 1st, the company will limit\u00a0the scope of\u00a0its updates to security fixes. For how long? We don\u2019t know exactly. Altogether, this makes analysts and industry experts think that\u00a0Windows 10 has reached a maturity state. And that it will not change much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ironically, this consolidation comes\u00a0at the same time that\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0is shifting\u00a0its strategy for Windows 10X<\/a>. What was going to be the dual-screen variant of the OS is now being redirected towards a more simplified, one-screen version. The move signals Microsoft\u2019s intention to compete more head-on with Google\u2019s Chromebook. Which holds a big share of the business and education market.\u00a0<\/p>\nSoftware consolidation<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n