Microsoft is looking to triple annual revenue from its cloud-computing businesses to USD 20 billion by the end of fiscal 2018, according to its CEO Satya Nadella. Speaking to analysts at the company's Financial Analyst Briefing, Nadella also forecast that Microsoft will have 1 billion Windows 10 devices on the market by 30 June 2018.
In its quarterly earnings report issued last week, Microsoft said total revenues from its cloud ventures had more than doubled to a USD 6.3 billion run rate, most of it coming from Office 365 and Windows Azure. Microsoft has been offering customers discounts on other software to persuade them to sign up to one-year trial Azure licences and is hoping that the majority continue to pay for the service.
