How Microsoft Office Is Helping Azure

Windows 10 logo. Source: Microsoft.

Microsoft increasingly depends on its many cloud services, including Office 365 and Azure. These products, while united by their dependence on Microsoft's data centers, exist independently and serve different needs.

Yet the success of one may help fuel the others. On Microsoft's most recent earnings call, management highlighted a seemingly unlikely set of network effects -- ones that could ultimately benefit Microsoft shareholders.

The importance of the cloudHistorically, the bulk of Microsoft's business was generated by the sale of software licenses: Demand for copies of Windows and Office generated most of Microsoft's revenue over the last three decades. But more and more, Microsoft is shifting its focus to the cloud. Windows and Office remain vitally important, but for long-term investors, Microsoft's emergence as a cloud computing giant is more substantial. Microsoft sells cloud services to consumers (Office 365, Xbox Live), but its enterprise offerings are more significant. In recent quarters, it's offered investors insight into the health of its commercial cloud business through a single metric.

Microsoft's commercial cloud annualized revenue run rate is a figure that represents the amount of annual sales Microsoft's various enterprise cloud services could collectively generate were they to sustain their current demand over the course of a year. Over the last three years, it's soared from about $1 billion to over $9.4 billion. That rapid growth is expected to continue -- Microsoft's management sees the figure topping $20 billion by its fiscal year 2018.

Office 365 driving Azure and vice-versaMicrosoft's enterprise cloud services compete in several different segments. Office 365 (the cloud-based alternative to its popular Office productivity suite) competes with other spreadsheet, presentation, and text editors, Azure competes with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Dynamics CRM competes with Salesforce. At first glance, these products appear disjointed -- what does a spreadsheet editor like Excel have to do with a cloud computing platform like Azure? But although they serve different needs, they work well together.

On Microsoft's earnings call in January, CEO Satya Nadella noted an interesting trend Microsoft was seeing with its customers.

Later in the call, Nadella added additional color.

In other words, Office 365 and Azure complement one another, and firms that use one have a natural incentive to rely on both. Cloud apps that run on Azure can pull data from Office 365; Office 365 apps can be beamed to any device using Azure. In this way, Microsoft has an advantage over its cloud competitors, as it can leverage its multiple offerings to sell a more complete solution.

Azure revenue rose 140% on a constant-currency basis last quarter; revenue from commercial Office 365 subscriptions rose 70%. Those are exciting figures, and as Microsoft's customers increasingly rely on the company for several different cloud services, it appears it will hit its $20 billion target.

The article How Microsoft Office Is Helping Azure originally appeared on Fool.com.

Sam Mattera has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool recommends Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.