SaaS

The platform, called GreenLake Central, lets clients evaluate the cost, performance and security of their various computer data systems as well as buy new computing services.

Analysts wrote that while the dollar-amount of the deal made it “inconsequential” for Microsoft’s near-term results, it still represented a milestone for its fast-growing cloud business.

The $10 billion cloud contract -- unthinkable for Microsoft even a year ago -- will likely come at a cost, both legally and internally.

HPE CEO Antonio Neri is tying to increase sales by moving the company to a subscription business model. By 2022, all HPE hardware and software will be available as a service or via a pay-per-use model.

Hurd was a key driver in Oracle’s turn from an old model of licensing software toward the use of cloud computing, a burgeoning business dominated by rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Cloud artificial intelligence presents some challenges that other cloud-based offerings do not.

Cloud is the company’s clear growth engine -- with revenue increasing about 32% last year to about 5 billion euros -- but driving change at SAP has sometimes been controversial.