BANGALORE: Becoming Microsoft CEO was beyond his wildest dreams, Satya Nadella said in a recorded video telecast at a conference organized by the computing giant here on Thursday.
"Having grown up in India, the idea that I would have the opportunity to talk to all of you as CEO of Microsoft was beyond my wildest dreams. Admittedly, my interests at that time were a bit more focused on cricket than on technology," he said, and went on to add, "It is amazing though, to think of the advancements in technology over the past few years and the opportunity for developers in India today."
Nadella, who was appointed CEO of the $78-billion company in February, talked about the enormous opportunities in cloud computing. He believes India is a cloud-first and mobile-first country, with cloud emerging as a potential game-changer to deliver applications on smart devices at a fraction of the cost of traditional computing. "We are at a pivotal time in our industry - living in and developing for a mobile-first, cloud-first world," he said
With over 100 million Smartphones and 12 million PCs expected to be sold in the country this year, companies are increasingly relying on the power of cloud to deliver modern applications on connected devices. "Organizations require modern applications to deliver cloud-scale, while integrating with existing systems through hybrid cloud capabilities," he said.
Nadella said Microsoft's Azure is a powerful platform for the entire Indian ecosystem of IT professionals, developers and startups to bring their applications to market worldwide. "It helps Indian customers to leapfrog to the cloud and accrue significant cost savings," he said. Microsoft has 10,000 partners and engages with 1.6 million developers in India.
Globally, the company has invested $15 billion to build massive cloud infrastructure and it has 55 percent of Fortune 500 companies using Windows Azure. India is one of the fastest growth markets for Azure.
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