Photo: Microsoft
Microsoft shores up Azure to pressure AWS

Welcome to Protocol Cloud, your comprehensive roundup of everything you need to know about the week in cloud and enterprise software. This week: Microsoft stokes the fires of cloud competition at Ignite, something crazy happened with the Oracle-TikTok deal, and would you reboot the software on a F-15 midflight?
Also, please join me tomorrow for Protocol's upcoming virtual cloud security event, Your Next Cybersecurity Moves, sponsored by Yubico. Securing the workforce is often referred to as a team sport, and as CISOs and cybersecurity executives know too well, the high-performing organizations are the ones that prepare most from top to bottom. Along with Protocol Braintrust's Kevin McAllister, I'll moderate a discussion featuring Danny Allan of Veeam, Joy Chik of Microsoft, and Michael Hamilton of CI Security. More details and registration here.
Microsoft's wholesale embrace of cloud computing was a fundamental moment in its history, and it has taken a lot of work to carve out its position against cloud pioneer AWS. In many ways, Microsoft approached the cloud from the outside in, leveraging strong relationships with enterprise decision makers to jumpstart demand for a small but steadily growing portfolio of services.
At this point Microsoft and Google both offer a sweeping set of battle-tested cloud services that might not cover exactly as much ground as AWS but provide plenty of options for both large enterprise corporations and cloud-native startups. At its virtual Ignite conference this week, designed for the IT professionals of the world, Microsoft introduced dozens of updates to Azure as part of its "War and Peace"-length, self-proclaimed "Book of News."
Only a few of Microsoft's updates are worth calling out as "News" for what they say about Microsoft Azure's current position in the market and where it wants to go. If you're looking for 800 words on .NET, you'll have to find another newsletter.
Let's start with one of the basics: reliability. That's something Microsoft is all too aware that it needs to improve about Azure.
Microsoft also pressed its advantage as a pioneer in a portion of the cloud it helped introduce: hybrid data-center/cloud services.
So what comes next? Microsoft wants to be the phone company.
There were a handful of other interesting announcements from Ignite, such as Microsoft's intention to duplicate AWS's cloud-to-space services, the general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and whatever vague plans the company has for OpenAI's GPT-3 language generator.
One topic left unmentioned — one which will become more interesting over the next few months — is Microsoft's plan for Azure instances based on processors from Arm.
Pure Storage provides a consistent data platform across on-premises and public cloud environments with a unified hybrid consumption model and integrated management. Visit: purestorage.com/hybrid-cloud to learn how Pure enables a modern data experience for seamless application mobility.
Zoom boom: "Zoom for X" is apparently a thing now, the same way "Uber for X" became an instantly nauseating startup pitch eight or so years ago. Protocol's Biz Carson took a look at startups that are building video calling services into all manner of applications, both on top of Zoom's technology and around it.
Swamp stomp: For a while over the weekend, it looked like the scenario described in last week's Protocol Cloud had come to pass, and the U.S. government had forced a tech company to switch cloud providers on a whim. As we head into Wednesday, however, the details of the bizarre and troubling ByteDance-Oracle-Walmart-Tiktok deal continue to evolve, and where it stops, nobody knows.
IPO show: Three major cloud software companies went public last week, and while Snowflake's stock has slipped a bit below the closing price of its first day of trading, it remains the big winner of the week. But don't overlook JFrog and Sumo Logic, whose IPOs set both companies up for success in two very important areas of cloud computing.
What was your first tech job?
In 1980, I was a high school student in Bombay. A few friends and I started buying electronic alarm clocks — still a novelty in India — from a local importer. We then resold them to an India distributor for a small profit. We called our company Sigma Electronics, and it was my first introduction to the mechanics of buying, selling, price and profit.
What's the best piece of advice you could give to someone starting their first tech job?
Wherever you work, find a way to move the needle for a company. A friend of mine had his first job at a trucking logistics company. Rather than looking at it as a dead end, he quickly started using analytics to show how the company could generate more profit. Within a month or two, the CEO was calling him directly.
What was the first computer that made you realize the power of computing and connectivity?
The Sinclair ZX80, first produced in 1980, was my very first computer. But I soon moved on to the Apple II with a 300 baud modem, which magically connected me to the early world of online bulletin boards.
What was the biggest reason for the success of cloud computing over the past decade?
Agility and speed. Every company can do more faster. The cloud has also let every entrepreneur focus on their unique value. The nuts and bolts of running a business are becoming more automated.
What will be the biggest challenge for cloud computing over the coming decade?
Data privacy. The threats will become more numerous and the issue will become more complex in a world defined by data and sharing.
Pure Storage provides a consistent data platform across on-premises and public cloud environments with a unified hybrid consumption model and integrated management. Visit: purestorage.com/hybrid-cloud to learn how Pure enables a modern data experience for seamless application mobility.
Thanks for reading — see you next week.
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