Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp., speaks during the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in Seattle, Washington, USA, on Monday, May 7, 2018. The Build conference, which marks its second consecutive year in Seattle, is scheduled to take place. emphasis on the company’s cloud technologies and the artificial intelligence features of these services.
Grant Hindsley | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft announced Monday that it will contribute to cloud-based data storage and computing power on Earth, a software project that allows industry researchers and academics to collaborate on large-scale analysis of health information .
In fact, the life sciences company that operates under the Google Alphabet matrix, jointly developed Earth and has used it for the past three years. Terra’s other partner is the Broad Institute, a nonprofit health research institution that Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology established in 2004.
The service ran on Google’s cloud infrastructure. Now, the groups will also deploy Earth to Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
The move into an example of Google Cloud’s struggles to gain strength against its competitors in larger clouds, as well as Microsoft’s success in hiring a wide range of Azure partners in all industries. In 2019, the public market for cloud services grew by 37% over the previous year, with Microsoft at 18% and Amazon, the main player controlling 45%, according to estimates by the research company the Gartner technology industry. Google had 5% of the market. No latest figures available.
“I think there are several aspects of Azure that are very compelling,” said Anthony Philippakis, data director at the Broad Institute. “When we look at the confidence they have in the life sciences ecosystem, it’s amazing. Almost all health systems work with Microsoft products.”
Bringing Earth to Azure could lead to significant software adoption, he said. Microsoft has more than 168,000 partners in health and life sciences, said Dr. / Greg Moore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president who previously worked in healthcare at Google’s cloud division. As of 2019, 95% of Microsoft’s business revenue came from partners, according to the company.
Microsoft’s decision to contribute to Terra alongside the Broad Institute and Verily comes less than a year after it introduced a Cloud for Health Care package that includes Azure and the Teams communication app. Healthcare represents a sector where Microsoft can increase its revenue and profits, analysts at RBC wrote in a November report.
The advent of coronavirus “has made us more aware than ever” of the importance of collaborating researchers from various organizations rather than relying on smaller data sets and computer resources that are preserved on the site, said Clare Bernard, director principal of the Broad Institute.
Philippakis would not specify whether the software could be available from Amazon Web Services.
“Any decision on the incorporation of future clouds will be made jointly by Broad, Verily and Microsoft,” he said.
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