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Microsoft has steadily improved and today not much separates the core cloud experience provided by the major cloud providers¡ªAmazon, Google and Microsoft. The cloud providers seem to agree and seek to differentiate themselves in other areas such as features, services and cost structure. Microsoft is the provider who shows real interest in the legal requirements of European companies. They¡¯ve a nuanced and plausible strategy, including unique offerings such as and Azure Stack, which gives some certainty to European companies in anticipation of the and possible legislative changes in the United States.

Microsoft has steadily improved and today not much separates the core cloud experience provided by the major cloud providers ¨C Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The cloud providers seem to agree and seek to differentiate themselves in other areas such as features, services and cost structure. Microsoft is the provider who shows real interest in the legal requirements of European companies. They¡¯ve a nuanced and plausible strategy, including unique offerings such as and Azure Stack, which gives some certainty to European companies in anticipation of the and possible legislative changes in the United States.

Microsoft¡¯s Azure cloud platform continues to play catchup with more mature clouds such as AWS, but we¡¯ve been impressed with how Microsoft has responded to market demands. As with most Microsoft solutions it continues to be a contender and worth evaluating.

The Cloud continues to be of interest to us, with Software as a Service the most mature cloud component. Platform and Infrastructure as service offerings have reached different levels of maturity, and we reflect that in our placement of EC2, Google App Engine and Azure.