Microsoft feels that the entry of Amazon into some new areas of business acts as an excellent opportunity to get hold of some cloud customers for themselves.
Judson Althoff, the current executive vice president, who heads the worldwide commercial business group of Microsoft, while making an appearance during the Global Technology Conference of Citi in New York on Thursday, pointed out the one main reason, due to which the public cloud of Microsoft is growing much faster in comparison to Amazon’s. That one reason is nothing but trust.
According to Althoff, Amazon is making an attack towards a number of industries at the present moment and they are not only carrying out their tasks in a very bold manner but also, they have been extremely open about it. He believes that Jeff Bezos would surely say that margin for Microsoft is an opportunity for Amazon. There is substantial proof of this fact in the retail sector along with the financial services and healthcare.
The interest that Amazon has in retail business is quite understandable given their acquisition of Whole Foods and the way they have aimed to start their activity off by introducing the convenience stores of Amazon Go. Now, this expansion has begun to help Microsoft. In the month of July, Microsoft had made an announcement of a five-year deal involving cloud with Walmart. Apart from Walmart, other cloud customers include Costco and Kroger.
On a sure shot basis, AWS have their own set of retail customers, which includes Brooks Brothers and Under Armour.
The interest that the company has in financial services is much less pronounced. Amazon has even made an introduction to some products related to financial services in the past, which included Amazon Cash, Amazon Pay, and Amazon Lending.
With regard to the healthcare sector, there is less clarity about Amazon’s plans though they could build their own health clinics for employees and also look to make Alexa fit to be used in healthcare facilities. In June, they had bought online pharmacy, PillPack and is also currently working along with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase on a health care initiative.
