Microsoft to AWS: Our cloud is bigger than yours

Microsoft talks up how its own cloud offering compares with that of AWS and Google

Microsoft has boasted the capabilities of its cloud compared with that of Amazon's and Google's, claiming its offering is bigger than its rivals' combined.

In a presentation to analysts last night, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, the firm's general manager for cloud platform marketing Mike Schutz admitted many Microsoft customers have tried out or used rivals' cloud products in the past before considering Microsoft, but insisted his company's proposition is superior.

Amazon and Google have competed fiercely against Microsoft in the cloud space for some time, and the former's cloud offering – Amazon Web Services – propelled its parent firm to a surprise profit in the summer.

Schutz poured cold water on his rivals' offerings and said Microsoft's is bigger and better.

"Hyperscale fundamentally is one of the ways that we differentiate," he said.

"There's only a couple or three hyperscale clouds out there in the world, us being one of them. We operate today in about 19 regions, which means we have 19 datacentre regions globally. We continue to expand as our customers need us to do so. To put [that] in perspective, that's about twice as many as AWS and about five or six times that of Google Cloud platform. And so even if you combined AWS and Google Cloud, we're in more regions than the two of them combined.

"And so hyperscale is important – it's important to our customers because they want our service where they are and where their customers are. And so that's one of the fundamental tenets."

Back in April, Amazon revealed AWS is a $5bn company. Schutz admitted size isn't everything.

"AWS is big too and so where the differentiation [really] comes in is around hybrid.

"We also have a set of capabilities that provide 'connective tissue' between the private cloud and the public cloud, whether or not customers are running our private cloud technologies. The other element is around our enterprise routes and enterprise-grade support. And we have 650,000 partners worldwide, so we have a very broad footprint into our existing customer base with our trusted partners."

AWS was not immediately available to comment.