Microsoft Azure - NAND Research

Key Takeaways: Microsoft FabCon 2025

At Microsoft’s second annual Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) 2025, held earlier this month in Las Vegas, the company unveiled several significant announcements that together enhance its unified data platform. The updates to Fabric focus on improving data security, AI integration, and streamlined data management.

Research Note: Anthropic/Databricks Partnership

Anthropic recently announced a new five-year strategic partnership with Databricks to integrate its Claude language models, including the newly released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

The deal, valued at approximately $100 million, will allow Databricks’ enterprise customers to build, deploy, and govern AI agents that operate directly on their proprietary enterprise data. Databricks will offer Claude models natively through its platform across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Research Note: Enhanced Google Cloud NetApp Volumes

At the 2025 Google Cloud Next event, NetApp and Google Cloud announced a significant expansion of capabilities for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, their jointly developed fully managed file storage offering.

The updates provide enhance performance, scalability, and integration with AI and compliance frameworks, targeting large-scale enterprise workloads

Research Note: Couchbase Edge Server for Offline-First Data Processing

Couchbase recently announced its new Couchbase Edge Server, a lightweight, offline-first database and sync solution designed for edge computing environments. The new solution extends Couchbase’s mobile data synchronization capabilities to resource-constrained deployments where full-scale database solutions are not feasible.

Quick Take: CQ4’24 Cloud Earnings

The top three US public cloud providers — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — each reported strong but slightly decelerating growth for calendar Q4 2024. The increasing importance of AI workloads, rising capital expenditures, and shifts in customer spending patterns all impacted earnings and guidance for the quarter.

NAND Insider Newsletter: January 21, 2025

Every week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers. Below is an excerpt from this week’s.

Research Note: Oracle Exadata X11M

Oracle recently launched of its latest Exadata platform, the Oracle Exadata X11M. Purpose-built to optimize the performance of Oracle Database, including Oracle Autonomous Database, X11M is a significant leap forward in speed and efficiency compared to previous generation Exadata systems for cloud, multi-cloud, and customer data centers.

Quick Take: AWS re:Invent AI Services & Infrastructure Announcement Wrap-Up

AWS has made close to 50 announcements in the first 2 days of re:Invent. This blog takes a look at the most interesting AI services & infrastructure related ones.

Quick Take: NTT DATA and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Partnership in APAC

NTT DATA recently announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to advance the adoption of cloud-based data analytics and generative AI solutions for enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.

The expanded relationship combines NTT DATA’s industry-specific expertise with Google Cloud’s AI and analytics infrastructure to drive sector-specific innovation and efficiency improvements across healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and public sector verticals.

Research Note: Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution (AVS)

Pure Storage recently launched its new Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution (AVS), a fully managed block-storage-as-a-service offering integrated directly into the Azure portal as an Azure Native ISV Service. This solution addresses the storage and scalability requirements of enterprise VMware workloads transitioning to the cloud, specifically those needing high storage capacity relative to compute.

AMD MI300 Gains Momentum with New Vultr & Oracle Cloud Wins

The AMD MI300’s advanced architecture, featuring high memory capacity, low power consumption, and solid performance, is finding a home among cloud providers. While Microsoft Azure previously announced MI300-based instances, there are new announcements from specialty GPU cloud provider Vultr and the mainstream CSP Oracle Cloud Infrastructure of new integrations with AMD’s MI300 accelerator.

Is Ampere Computing Up for Sale?

Ampere Computing, the leading vendor of server processors based on the Arm architecture, is reportedly exploring a sale, signaling a strategic pivot amidst increasing competition in the market for alternative server processors.

Quick Take: Azure’s Impact on Microsoft FQ4 2024 Earnings

Microsoft closed its fiscal year with solid financial results, reporting a total annual revenue of more than $245 billion, a 15% year-over-year increase. Microsoft Cloud (which include Azure, LInkedIn, and Office 365) revenue surpassed $135 billion, growing 23% year-over-year.

Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs

At its 2024 Microsoft Build Event this week, Microsoft announced the preview of new Azure Virtual Machines powered by Microsoft’s previously announced in-house-design Arm-based processor, the Cobalt 100

Microsoft New Phi-3 Model Additions

This week at the Microsoft Build 2024 conference, the tech giant announced an exciting set of updates to its Phi-3 family of small, open models. The news includes the introduction of Phi-3-vision, a multimodal model that combines language and vision capabilities, providing developers with powerful tools for generative AI applications.

Sovereign Cloud Explained

As enterprises increasingly migrate to the cloud, ensuring that data remains secure, private, and within legal jurisdictional boundaries is paramount. Sovereign cloud solutions have emerged as a pivotal technological innovation designed to address these complex requirements.

What Microsoft’s FQ3 2024 Earnings Reveal About Azure

Microsoft announced its fiscal Q3 2024 results, demonstrating robust growth. The company reported a total revenue of $61.9 billion, a 17% increase year-over-year, primarily driven by the cloud segment.

Microsoft’s Cloud business, which includes Azure and other cloud properties such as LinkedIn, generated over $35 billion in revenue, up 23%. During its earnings call, Microsoft said that Azure’s expansion and the increasing demand for AI infrastructure propelled much of its growth.

Research Report: Oracle Database@Azure

Oracle and Microsoft Azure recently announced Oracle@Azure, making Microsoft Azure the only cloud provider besides Oracle itself capable of running Oracle’s database services with the performance, reliability, and security of Oracle Exadata and OCI

Research Note: Dell APEX Files for Microsoft Azure

Dell recently introduced its new APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure, designed to enhance businesses’ multi-cloud capabilities. The new solution integrates Dell PowerScale OneFS, its high-performance storage system, into the Azure cloud, allowing customers to manage and consolidate data efficiently, reduce costs, and improve data security and protection. It also utilizes Azure’s AI tools to provide quicker insights.

Research Note: Microsoft Updates Azure for Operators

At the recent MWC 2024 in Barcelona, Microsoft shared updates on its Azure for Operators portfolio, demonstrating significant advancements in generative AI and its application in telecommunications.

This Research Note takes an in-depth look at what Microsoft announced.

Research Note: Microsoft/Vodaphone Strategic Partnership

Vodafone and Microsoft announced a significant 10-year strategic partnership aimed at driving digital transformation for businesses and consumers across Europe and Africa, leveraging their combined strengths in technology and connectivity.

Research Note: Microsoft’s New Processor & Accelerator

At its recent Microsoft Ignite event, the company announced the launch of the Azure Cobalt 100 CPU and the Maia 100 AI accelerator, marking a significant pivot in Microsoft’s approach to its cloud infrastructure and representing the company’s commitment to driving innovation in high-performance computing and AI.

Research Note: Inside Q3 2023 Cloud Earnings

This research note delves into the earnings reported by the top three public cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, and Google) over the past week.

What Q3 Earnings Tell Us about Public Cloud

The recent earnings reports from the top three public cloud providers, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google Cloud, shows that the overall public cloud market remains robust and is starting to show signs of increased growth after several quarters of shrinking growth.

Tag: Microsoft Azure