Asia, as you know, is the largest continent in the world, both in terms of size and population. It is also one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with China and India leading the way. Over the last few years, this continent has seen many people climb out of poverty, and many countries have a sustainable and growing economy that provides jobs to millions of people. Much of these positive developments can be attributed to education and technology.

Asian companies are always looking for ways to improve their operations , and technology has been a major aspect in its quest for higher efficiency and profits. In such a scenario, it is little wonder that cloud computing is the present and future of these Asian companies. Though the rate of adoption in Asia has been much slower when compared to Europe or the U.S, it’s still picking up fast.

To cater to this growing demand, cloud leaders like Microsoft are going all out. The president of Microsoft Asia, Ralph Haupter, opined that Asian companies are always looking for means to digitally transform their business, and cloud is the technology that will make it possible. His statement is based on a report that Microsoft released recently about the state of cloud affairs in Asia.

According to this report, 78 percent of 1,494 respondents who were surveyed for this report believe that cloud computing is an important component in their digital transformation strategy. In addition, 80 percent think cloud strategy is vital for the long-term growth and economic sustainability of this region. However, only 29 percent of respondents have made plans to implement it.

This difference between those who believe in the need for cloud and those who have plans to execute it, is the opportunity area for Microsoft. If it can talk to the remaining 51 percent of respondents, identify the reasons for non-implementing and provide a roadmap for integrating cloud into their operations, then it can be a huge business for Microsoft. There is even a potential for Microsoft to become the leading cloud provider in Asia, if it plays its cards well.

One of the biggest advantages that Microsoft has over that of its competitors is its brand name. A large number of households in Asia have a computer, so “Microsoft” is a household name here. To top it, Microsoft has 13 data centers in Asia to cater to the demands of its clients, so it’s infrastructure is already in place. Also, all these 13 data centers support Azure, so this makes it easy for Microsoft to expand its cloud presence in Asia.

Further, Microsoft has identified potential cloud partners in different countries and is working with them closely. For example, in China, Microsoft has partnered with a company called 21Vianet to provide local services to clients in Beijing and Shanghai. The obvious advantage is these local players have a better idea of their market conditions, and can provide a better service to local clients.

A combination of these different strategies can help Microsoft take a lion’s share in the Asian market within the next few years. However, it has to keep stay on top of intense competition from companies like AWS and Alibaba.

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Protecting intellectual property rights has become an uphill battle in today’s business world. To offer an extra layer of protection for its customers, Microsoft has come up with a program called Azure IP Advantage program.  Under this program, customers will have the best of protection against intellectual property risks, lawsuits and infringements.

Deemed as one of the most comprehensive protection programs from Microsoft, it is designed to help customers protect their cloud-based innovations and products that were developed using cloud technologies. This way, developers can continue with their coding and companies can focus on their business, as they don’t have to deal with IP lawsuits and worries about the diminishing rights on their assets.

To be more specific, customers can enjoy the following three benefits under this program:

1. They can defend against any IP lawsuit with the more than 10,000 patents from Microsoft. These patents include those registered within and outside of the US. It also includes pending applications that are ancillary to the approved patents.
2. A springing license to any of Microsoft’s existing patents that are transferred to non-practicing entities.
3. Uncapped indemnification for IP lawsuits.

These benefits are available to all Azure customers, but the springing license and picking of patents are available only to those clients that meet the terms and conditions laid down by Microsoft in this regard.

For the patent pick feature, a customer should be a bonafide user of Azure, and should have paid at least $1,000 per month for the last three months. This includes the aggregated amount paid towards different Azure services. Say, for example, if you’re paying $600 a month for one service and $500 for another, you can combine it. Also, note that this the average monthly usage over the last three months. So, if you spend $800 the first month, $700 the next and $1500 the third, then you become eligible too.

In addition, the customer should be facing a lawsuit for patent infringement and the customer should have remained patent peaceful against Azure for the past two years. If the customer meets all these conditions, then they tap into Microsoft’s 10,000 patents.

This program can be a significant one for both Microsoft and its customers. From Microsoft’s perspective, this program can give it an edge in the fiercely-competitive cloud market that is dominated by AWS.  Since IP protection and the ensuing lawsuits are something that many companies are forced to handle on a regular basis, this protection can be an enticing factor to move to Microsoft.

From a customer’s perspective, this program takes away the hassles of handling IP lawsuits, and this can help them to focus on the core aspects of their business. In today’s connected world, IP infringement and risks have become common, so this plan might offer the much-needed protection against these risks.

Overall, this seems like a good move by Microsoft, and it can bring much savings to customers in the form of reduced time and effort to deal with intellectual property lawsuits and infringements.  In the process, it can also hope to rope in more customers.

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Microsoft aims to dominate in as many sectors as possible, and this is why it has such a wide array of products. Its current crop of PC products compete right from the high end Macbook Pro to the lowest Chromebooks. In fact, to take on this low end version, Microsoft has released a new operating system called Windows 10 Cloud. This new OS comes after multiple failed attempts in the form of Windows RT and Windows 8.1 with Bing, both of which didn’t take customers away from Chromebook or Macbook.

At this point, not much is known about Windows 10 Cloud, as Microsoft has decided to maintain a veil of secrecy around it. Some reports however suggest that this new operating system can be a simplified version of Windows 10, possibly one that could run only on Unified Windows Platform (UWP) apps installed from the Windows store. In this sense, it could be similar to the earlier ones – Windows RT or Windows 8.1 with Bing. Hopefully soon, we’ll get to know how similar or different it is from its earlier operating systems.

One thing that’s for sure is that Windows 10 Cloud has little or nothing to do with cloud. The name is misleading, and maybe with an intent to make users guess about its connection with Azure. Or it could be to keep tune with Microsoft’s policy of “cloud first.” A look into Microsoft’s latest earnings show that much of the profits are driven by the company’s cloud business, and maybe this name could reflect the rapid transition that Microsoft is making to become the leader in cloud computing.

Another theory is that this operating system will rely on Microsoft’s cloud services when using the hardware that ships with this OS. In other words, it means Office 365 for productivity, Bing for search engine, Cortana for help and OneDrive for storage. On top of it, Microsoft is expected to bundle its key services as default, including Bing, with an intent to keep customers within its own ecosystem of products and services.

Reports of this new operating system has been found by Windows sleuths and experts when they browsed through the latest builds. From these log files, we can make an intelligent guess about the due date, which could be on or before April 2017. Alternately, it can also be shipped along with the second planned update to Windows 10, that is expected to roll out later this year.

So, what is it that Microsoft wants to achieve through this product? Obviously, it wants to capture the lower end of the PC market, and want users to take to its product over Chromebooks. Experts opine that this is highly unlikely given that Chromebooks is already quite popular among people, and unless Microsoft offers something extraordinary in its Windows 10 Cloud, such a shift is unlikely.

Currently, reports show that Microsoft may either reduce the price of its Windows 10 Cloud systems or it may provide additional features such as a larger display for the same cost.

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Microsoft is looking to make a big impact in the Australia New Zealand (ANZ) region this year, and to this end, it has brought in Steven Worrall as the new managing director of its Australian business. In this role, Worrall has the responsibility to ensure that Microsoft meets the needs of its customers in the ANZ region, and also continue to cater to the more than 11,000 partners and independent software vendors that work on the Microsoft platform in Australia.

Though this sounds like a huge responsibility, Microsoft believes Worrall has the skills and experience to handle it. He joined Microsoft in 2014 as the Director of Enterprise and Partner Group – a division that is responsible for driving business and building a strong relationship with customers and partners. He had done remarkably well in this role, as he showed strong results and improvements in the areas of productivity solutions, cloud, and mobility platforms.

Worrall was offered this job after Pip Marlow, the long-standing director of Microsoft Australia, quit her job to take up a new role as the chief executive of strategic innovation at Suncorp. After accepting this position, Worrall told The Australian Financial Review  that he would make the most of his stint at the top, especially at a time when Microsoft is on a roll world over, fueled in part by the phenomenal success of its cloud platform, Azure. It’s other cloud-based products such as Office 365 and Dynamic 365 are also enjoying a huge popularity, and Worrall plans to extend their application further in the ANZ region.

At the same time, he also opined on the skills gap that exist in cloud technology, and promised that he would work on this area to ensure that Microsoft’s capabilities reached every customer and partner to the fullest extent possible.

Worrall could not have asked for a better time to lead Microsoft, as the company is gushing ahead in the cloud business. Last week, it’s quarterly results exceeded the expectations of investors and analysts, with a substantial chunk of revenue coming from its cloud business. Worrall is the right choice for this position, as he has the experience and skills to steer the Australian business in the right direction, and to contribute to the overall profitability in a big way.

Before joining Microsoft, Worrall worked in IBM for 22 years, and held various roles in the areas of sales, marketing, software and finance. In his last stint at IBM, he was responsible for furthering IBM’s software business in the Asia Pacific region, and more specifically, for promoting its cloud-based services.

Besides experience, Worrall also has a solid academic background as he holds an Honor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and an MBA degree in Business from Macquarie University.  In addition, he is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a board that aims to promote excellence in governance and also to provide solutions on issues faced by Australian directors.

On the personal front, Worrall lives in Sydney with his wife and three children.

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Cloud is undoubtedly driving the profits of big techies like AWS and Microsoft, as the recent financial results show. On Thursday, Microsoft released the results for the fourth quarter of 2016, and it shows a four percent increase in overall earnings.

It reported a net income of $5.2 billion or $0.66 a share, when compared to $5.02 billion or $0.62 a share a year ago. Overall, Microsoft’s revenue rose to $24.09 billion from $23.8 billion almost a year ago. These numbers beat the expectations of Wall Street, so Microsoft’s shares are trading at all-time highs, and it closed at $64.27 at the end of trading on Thursday, which is almost a one percent increase through the day.

Much of this rise in its profits has come from its cloud business, signaling that cloud computing is the future of Microsoft. Sales from Azure cloud computing platform increased by 93 percent from a year ago, and revenue from its “intelligent” cloud segment rose by eight percent to reach $6.9 billion.

What is surprising about this increase in revenue is that it includes the impact of LinkedIn’s acquisition, which was an astronomical $26.2 billion, making it one of Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions. The revenue from LinkedIn was also only minimal, as the deal was finalized only on December 8th, which means, it includes only a few weeks of LinkedIn’s revenue.

Much of this foray into cloud can be attributed to Satya Nadella, as he strengthened this line of business after he took over as the CEO of the company. In a way, he has reinvented a company that was struggling with a failing PC business.

For many years, Microsoft didn’t have much idea on which direction it should pursue after its Windows software hit a plateau. It tried to compete with Google in search and Apple in smartphones – both of which unfortunately misfired. Satya Nadella came to the fore during this uncertainty, and has taken the company in the right way.

He and his team found much success in moving applications like Office to the cloud, and creating business around it, so Microsoft can compete with the likes of AWS and other top players in the cloud market. In many ways, cloud computing represents one of the biggest technological shifts that Microsoft has had in years, and has proved to be a huge revenue generator for the company.

Probably the good news for Microsoft and its investors is that other aspects of its business also brought in some revenue for the company. Microsoft Office business, for example, showed strong growth as revenue rose by ten percent to $7.4 billion, though much of it came in the form of online subscriptions to Office 365. Surprisingly, its older Windows software business did well too. In fact, there was a five percent increase in revenue from Windows operating system. Also, revenue from Microsoft’s corporate customers also saw an increase of five percent.

In all, Microsoft has done well over the last quarter and it expects to have a good first quarter in 2017 too.

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Sage 50c is a cloud-based accounting software from Sage –  a leading provider of accounting and payroll software. Most of Sage’s products are geared towards small and medium sized businesses, as they’re the ones that need a good amount of automation within limited budgets. Likewise, Sage 50c is also programmed keeping these businesses in mind.

Sage 50c is an cloud version of Sage 50, that was earlier known as Peachtree Accounting. With this new software, users can run Sage 50 on the cloud instead of their local machines, thereby saving them time and resources. They no longer have to worry about their systems being compatible with the software, as all the specifications are handled by cloud providers.

Also, since this software is cloud-based, it can be accessed from any device and location. For example, a user can start working at home on his or her laptop, and complete it from a mobile device while commuting to work; such is the accessibility of this new software.  It gives greater flexibility to employees, especially the millennial generation, as they prefer to have a better work-life balance than the other generations.

In many ways, Sage 50c is like Office 365. Both these software are cloud versions of the parent software, and this is probably why Sage 50c comes with Office 365 Business Premium version. This integration was announced by Sage last July during its summit conference in Chicago, and it is expected to be available for small and medium businesses across different global markets this year. Sage plans to start first with its UK and Ireland market, where it will be available by the end of this month. It’s not clear why Sage chose the UK as its first market for Sage 50c, though some reports speculate that it wants to establish a market before Britain completes all formalities for exit from the European Union (EU). By spring, Sage 50c is expected to be available in the US ,Canada, Germany, and France.

This partnership between Sage and Microsoft extends the benefits of this accounting software greatly. In fact, the combination of Sage’s accounting software with Microsoft’s Excel is expected to help millions of small and medium businesses around the world to better manage their finances and payroll.

Besides the integration of Office 365, other new features in Sage include Sage Contact – a tool that syncs with Microsoft Outlook to give users instant access to the details of their contacts, so they can get all the related information within seconds.  In addition, Sage 50c comes with a feature called Mobile Invoicing that’ll help businesses to record their expenses and generate any necessary invoices remotely. They can even photograph receipts and capital expenses, and upload the same to their account, to help them better track their finances and also to reduce workload during an audit. Businesses can also choose to tie Sage 50c with their bank accounts to give them an instant view of their financial status at any time.

Sage 50c comes with some Business Intelligence reporting tools as well to give businesses an insight into their operations and performance. In all, it’s going to be an exciting year for Sage and its customers.

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