Microsoft's cloud-fuelled revival persists

Seattle

SATYA Nadella's turnaround of Microsoft Corp persisted in the fiscal second quarter, as more businesses bought cloud services and Internet-based tools like Azure and Office 365 from a company once mainly known for personal-computer software.

Revenue from Azure - Microsoft's platform that sells data-centre based computing power and services - more than doubled as customers signed up for pricier offerings that can handle machine learning and process large reams of information. Subscriptions for Office 365 productivity software also lured both businesses and consumers, and even Windows sales came in better than the overall PC market, fuelled by the adoption of Windows 10.

The gains add to optimism that Chief Executive Officer Nadella can revitalise growth by focusing on web-based services and productivity applications. More than 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are now using at least two different Microsoft cloud services, Mr Nadella said on Thursday. His plan to focus on apps for rival platforms is also attracting users, with 340 million downloads of Office apps on Apple Inc's iOS and …