Microsoft's Industry Clouds: More than just a bunch of services bundles

Credit: Microsoft

When Microsoft execs talk about the "Microsoft Cloud," they are referring to a growing number of business cloud services that includes Azure, Office 365/Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and more. (Just last month, Microsoft added "additional GitHub cloud revenue" and Windows 365 revenue to the Microsoft Cloud bucket.) In order to grow the Microsoft Cloud business faster and more consistently than simply by rearranging revenue numbers, the company increasingly is focusing on selling customers not just on one of its cloud services, but an integrated group of them. Microsoft refers to these cloud services suites as its Industry Clouds.

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In 2020, Microsoft launched the first of what would become a growing family of Industry Cloud offerings called the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. As of Oct. 1, 2022, there are now seven Microsoft Industry Clouds, with more expected in the coming months and years.

When Microsoft execs first outlined their strategy for these vertical cloud bundles, I felt like we were back to the old Microsoft "Better Together" strategy. More than a decade ago, Microsoft officials pitched to customers the idea that by sticking with their software, end-to-end, they'd get a better integrated, more seamless, and less problematic set of products. How and why Microsoft is pushing Industry Clouds is a bit more complex than that, but still definitely rooted in the idea that a Microsoft Cloud foundation is superior to anything else out there.

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