Becoming Microsoft CEO was beyond wildest dreams: Satya Nadella
"Having grown up in India, the idea that I would have the opportunity to talk to all of you as CEO of Microsoft was beyond my wildest dreams.
"Admittedly, my interests at that time were a bit more focused on cricket than on technology," he said at the Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud Conference, 2014 that was video- cast to a gathering of developers, business and technology decision makers and IT professionals.
"I believe the opportunities ahead for India with the Azure cloud platform are tremendous and I encourage you to seize all of them," he said.
Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform. It enables quick deployment and management of applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers.
"It is amazing though, to think of the advancement intechnology over the past few years and the opportunity for developers in India today," Nadella, an electrical engineering graduate from Mangalore University, said.
Nadella is the only third CEO after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in the 38-year old history of Microsoft.
"We are at a pivotal time in our industry- living in and developing for a mobile first, cloud first world," he said. Nadella , who joined Microsoft in 1992, had previously served as the Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise Group.
Stating
that
Azure
is
a
powerful
platform
for
the
entire
Indian
ecosystem
of
IT
professionals,
developers
and
start-ups
to
bring
their
applications
to
markets
worldwide,
he
said:
"It
helps
Indian
customers
leapfrog
to
the
cloud,
and
accrue
significant
cost
savings."
"It
provides
a
unique
opportunity
for
our
partners
to
scale
their
business,"
he
added.
"Now,
more
than
ever,
organisations
require
modern
applications
that
deliver
cloud-scale,
while
integrating
the
existing
system
through
hybrid
cloud
capabilities,"
Nadella
said
.
Stating
that
users
rely
on
the
power
of
the
cloud
to
deliver
rich
new
experiences
on
smart
connected
devices,
Nadella
said:
"With
Azure,
we
have
an
open
and
flexible
cloud
platform
for
you
to
build
modern
applications
and
to
grow
your
cloud
enabled
modern
business."
"We're seeing incredible momentum for Azure as the ecosystem expands to enable more services and capabilities day-to-day," he added.
Microsoft India today said that a significant portion of its growth in India in the last 12 months has come from its cloud businesses.
It said Microsoft is powering the cloud transition in India with Windows Azure and a set of comprehensive offerings across private, hybrid and public clouds.
"We are adding over 2,000 commercial cloud customers every month in India and these are customers across all industry sectors - banking, manufacturing, healthcare and media, and across large, mid-sized and small companies," Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik told reporters here on the sidelines of the conference.
Stating that with its large partner and developer eco-system, Microsoft is helping Indian organisations assess and transition to the cloud easily, he said: "Microsoft has 10,000 partners and engages with an ecosystem of 1.6 million developers in the country," he added.
Microsoft
said
it
has
been
investing
significantly
to
improve
cloud
capabilities
among
partners
and
developers.
Stating
the
firm
has
grown
the
number
of
its
cloud
solution
partners
by
200
per
cent
last
year,
it
said:
"The
company
has
seen
a
100
per
cent
growth
in
the
number
of
independent
software
vendor
(ISV)
applications
on
Windows
Azure
and
helped
1700
start-ups
adopt
Windows
Azure."
PTI