• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Technology

Microsoft's Latest Azure and Office Announcements Fit With a Recent Trend

With the help of a swelling R&D budget, Microsoft has been investing a lot lately in offerings that connect or integrate key products and services.
By ERIC JHONSA
Nov 06, 2019 | 06:00 AM EST
Stocks quotes in this article: MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, WORK

If there's an overarching theme to the product announcements that Microsoft (MSFT)  just made at its annual Ignite conference, it's that the software giant is trying to better integrate various products and platforms -- including some from third parties.

At Ignite -- a conference that has more of an enterprise focus than Microsoft's Build developer conference, which was held in May this year -- Microsoft unveiled a number of new offerings for (among other things) its Azure cloud platform and Office productivity suite. Notable reveals included:

  • Azure Arc, an advanced set of tools for managing server workloads and resources across not just Microsoft's cloud infrastructure, but also a company's own servers and (notably) third-party cloud infrastructures such as Amazon.com's (AMZN) and Alphabet/Google's (GOOGL) .
  • Project Cortex, a solution for both searching and (with the help of machine learning) automatically surfacing information from Office documents, e-mails, chat logs and a slew of other information sources, including databases and third-party business apps. Microsoft refers to Cortex as a "knowledge network," and says it will be generally available in the first half of 2020.
  • Several updates for the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform, which remains in pitched battle with Slack (WORK) . These updates include better integration with Microsoft Outlook as well as the Yammer enterprise social networking service.
  • A unified Office Mobile app for iOS and Android devices that can be used to view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Though its feature set isn't as rich as what the standalone Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps deliver to Office 365 subscribers, Microsoft argues Office Mobile delivers a better experience for users who only need a limited set of features.
  • Azure Synapse Analytics, a service for analyzing data across both data warehouses, which typically feature refined data that's used to inform business decisions, and data lakes, which typically contain large amounts of raw data that companies try to obtain insights from.

In some respects, a few of the major product announcements made at Ignite feel similar to some of the big ones made at Build earlier this year. Back then, Microsoft also showed off some innovative offerings meant to better integrate disparate products. The Fluid Framework, a platform for enabling document collaboration and other "shared interactive experiences" across both Microsoft and third-party apps, was perhaps the most high-profile example of such an offering.

Meanwhile, the sheer number of products and services announced at both Build and Ignite drives home how aggressively Microsoft is investing in R&D to go after various enterprise software and cloud services opportunities.

Microsoft's R&D spend rose 15% annually on a GAAP basis last quarter to $4.57 billion, and even that doesn't tell the whole story, since the company has been shifting engineering resources away from its Windows business to strengthen its hand in a slew of other areas. Thanks in part to big R&D investments, Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" segment, which covers Azure as well as traditional server software businesses, rose 22% last quarter.

Some of the Microsoft product and services launches that are being made possible by all of this R&D spending will end up being more successful than others. But it's hard to complain about the collective impact that such investments have been having on Microsoft's top line.

Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.
TAGS: Investing | Technology

More from Technology

Is Live Ventures Taking Notes From GameStop?

Bruce Kamich
Jan 26, 2021 3:09 PM EST

Let's see what we might glean from the charts.

Shark Bites: Stalking a Space SPAC

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Jan 26, 2021 1:03 PM EST

New Providence Acquisition's chart looks poor right now, but this name is on my radar, and I'm starting to build a position.

This Is No Market for Complacent Traders

Helene Meisler
Jan 25, 2021 6:00 AM EST

Let's look at signs of excess in the market and how they compare with past action.

2021 and 2022 Look Difficult for Intel, While 2023 -- Might -- Be Better

Eric Jhonsa
Jan 22, 2021 1:44 PM EST

Competition from AMD and ARM CPU developers looks set to take a toll over the next two years. But Intel could be in better shape in 2023 if its new CEO is ready to make some tough choices.

Intel Disappoints and Its Stock Suffers

Bruce Kamich
Jan 22, 2021 11:45 AM EST

When the chipmaker turns lower you need to get out the way.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 11:48 AM EST STEPHEN GUILFOYLE

    Cashing in Some More Chips at Stocks Under $10

    We're trimming a position for a big gain today.
  • 08:34 AM EST GARY BERMAN

    Wednesday Morning Fibocall for 1/27/2021

    The "correction" can be coming sooner than we thou...
  • 09:35 AM EST CHRIS VERSACE

    Another Big Winner for Stocks Under $10

    We're ringing the register Tuesday morning.
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2021 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login