Azure, Cloud and SaaS

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

But at end of the day, in Cloud, the question is if CIO and related spend will slow down. So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. So there’s much angst and even panic with so many SaaS and Cloud public stocks down 50% or more from their peaks. They are the Cloud. For now, they are still on fire.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2022

There are many ways to slice-and-dice public market data, but the headline one Bessemer called out is the most visceral I’ve seen: Public SaaS and Cloud companies lost $1 Trillion in market cap so far in 2022. And the number of public SaaS and Cloud decacorns has fallen from 50 to 17. Strange Days, Indeed.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Marketing

Clouded Judgement 4.26.24 - Azure Gives Positive Infra Software Preview

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 26, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Azure Report - Cloud Infra Looks Good! For software, all eyes were on Azure - which grew 31% YoY (ahead of expectations closer to 29%). So the overall Azure quarterly revenue figure is already not entirely spot on.

Azure

Azure Cloud Software AI

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

o this was an interesting week in terms of reading the tea leaves on what’s going on in SaaS, Cloud, the economy, and all that. The Cloud infra side grew nicely, but growth did slow. Second, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud all grew nicely, and are still growing like a weed — but the growth rate slowed.

AWS

AWS Cloud Azure Investment

5 Interesting Learnings from Salesforce at $40 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

So Salesforce has now grown into the active granddad of SaaS. Nvidia, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. 1% Dilution Many faster growing public SaaS and Cloud companies aim for 2% a year dilution or less from employee grants, down from the 10%+ common at start-ups. Not moving, er growing, as fast as it once did.

Scale

Scale Sales Hiring Azure AI

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

So we’ve had a lot of fun in our 5 Interesting Learnings profiling the top SaaS and Cloud companies at scale, from Slack to Zoom, from Shopify to Datadog, from Box to DropBox. But are AWS, Azure and Google Cloud just too big for us to learn from? Google Cloud sees it hitting $760B+ in 2025.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Scale

Clouded Judgement 10.11.24 - Budget Flush

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. The hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) are always some of the first companies to report earnings during earnings season (coming up in 2 weeks), and there’s always a read through for consumption names (meaning people believe there’s a correlation).

Cloud

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review

Clouded Judgement 2.7.25 - "Group + Triage" AI Systems

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Cloud Giants Report Q4 ‘24 We now have the quarterly reports from Amazon, Microsoft and Google. They each have some of the largest cloud businesses in the world in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud respectively.

Systems Review

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence

A Look Back at Q1 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 19, 2024

Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., These charts clearly show the ZIRP pull forward, the ensuing cloud cost optimizations, and then the recovery.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Azure

We End the Year at All-Time Lows for SaaS Growth. A Buying Signal — Or The End of an Era?

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Shopify, Canva, Monday and tons of other SaaS leaders less focused on tech and startups had big years. And broader Cloud players had great years too, from MongoDB to Cloudflare to Azure, if not quite as crazy as at the peak of 2021. And Gartner still predicts overall Cloud spend will grow to record rates in 2024.

Azure

Azure Cloud SaaS Trends

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $200 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2022

But fast forward to today, and Microsoft truly is a Cloud and SaaS company, with Azure and LinkedIn its fastest growing business units! Azure and other cloud services grew a record 40% and the total Microsoft Cloud grew to a $90 Billion run-rate. Microsoft Cloud gross margins remain high at 70%.

Azure

Azure Cloud B2B Scaling

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Aiven provides managed open source data technologies on all major clouds. Meanwhile, we do what we do best; manage cloud data infrastructure. We’ll see 10,000 of the best SaaS founders, execs and VCs Sep 13-15 at 2022 SaaStrAnnual.com ! With Aiven, developers can do what they do best: create applications.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Payments SaaS Payments

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

Many SaaS and Cloud leaders are down more than 50% from their all-time highs. But Covid did create a lot of artificial demand for Cloud products, especially the lockdown phase. A Covid Hangover in SaaS stocks.’ Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and even Google Cloud are on fire, adding insane amounts of revenue this year.

SaaS

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2023

So there’s no doubt things are a bit harder for everyone in SaaS and Cloud right now. A few of us are seeing no macro impacts, but probably the biggest tell are Cloud platform giants — AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The Cloud is still growing. The Cloud is still growing.

Azure

Azure AWS Cloud SaaS

MongoDB, Elastic, Okta: Things Are Tough Out There; Monday, CrowdStrike, Shopify: Not So Fast

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2024

So is it a downturn in SaaS or Cloud — or not? There are so many mixed signals: Unicorn product is up 2x over last year, but layoffs continue AI spend is fast and furious, with Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc. Overall, SaaS leaders tied to non-tech buyers or tied to AI are still growing at epic rates.

Azure

Azure SMB Cloud AI

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Yet, the Cloud is on fire during Work-and-Do-Everything-Possible-from-Home. Zoom is growing at rates we’ve never seen before in SaaS and Cloud. And Morgan Stanley has predicted Cloud penetration will be pulled forward 5+ years or more. Azure and Google Cloud also saw growth begin to slow.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud SaaS

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. SaaS and Cloud growth overall will remain strong. Shopify , Datadog, Crowdstrike , Google Cloud-Azure-AWS, Snowflake , etc. Carpe Diem.

Startup

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

So with the latest batch of earnings out, we can get a sense of where the leaders are in SaaS. Again, epic growth but a material slowing from what AWS cited as “economic headwinds” Still — Google Cloud didn’t see a slowing of growth, and Azure’s growth rate barely budged.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud Scale

Microsoft as a Mirror - What We Can Expect for SaaS in 2023

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 23, 2023

We saw moderated consumption growth in Azure and lower-than-expected growth [elsewhere]. Segment Expected Growth Productivity 12% Office Commercial 6% Office On-Premise -25% LinkedIn 5% Dynamics 13% Intelligent Cloud 18% Azure 26% Server -3% Services -3% 2. At some point, the optimizations will end.

Azure

Azure Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence

Why Would Microsoft Buy Wunderlist and Later Just Shut it Down?

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2020

In 2015, Microsoft wanted to help accelerate its SaaS / Cloud strategy and made a bunch of bets. Once Office 365, Azure, etc. took off, and Microsoft’s Cloud strategy became clear … a new task manager wasn’t important enough. Once Office 365, Azure, etc. They didn’t all have to work out. The big ones, though.

Azure

Azure Cloud Acquisition Strategy

58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well. And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. But classic B2B SaaS is definitely in many cases seeing tougher times. So not everyone is seeing tougher times these days. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters.

Azure

Azure AWS Sales B2B

Snowflake, CrowdStike and SumoLogic: “How to Leverage the Cloud Giants to Scale to 100 Million ARR and Beyond”

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

Jessica Alexander, Senior Director Cloud Technology & OEM Partnerships, Crowdstrike. So for the audience, cloud giants are turbocharging startup sales, and the predominant reason for this is because they’re fundamentally changing IT budgets at the customers that we’re all selling to. Rico Mallozzi, Sr.

Scale

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. You can see some quotes from Azure / AWS in my Q2 recap , and pasted below. After the cloud giants reported this week, the timing of the presumed re-acceleration is very much in question. On Tuesday, Azure and Google spooked the market.

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q4 ‘23 Two quotes from the Amazon and Microsoft earnings call really stood out to me this week. Sometimes they’re classic cloud migrations. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

Clouded Judgement 5.3.24 - Hyperscalers Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Reports

Clouded Judgement

MAY 3, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Results Q1 earnings seasons has officially kicked off! We now have results from the three hypersclaers (AWS / Azure / GCP). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Software Azure

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2021

Just how fast is SaaS and Cloud growing? Cloud software spending grew a stunning 23% in 2021, from $270 billion to $330 billion. Budgets and spend are increasing a stunning 20% a year in SaaS. Yes, we all now know top SaaS leaders have world-class NRR, from 110% to 160%. One thing we know — Fast.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS SaaS

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

So we’ve talked about it often here at SaaStr, but things are just so … odd right now in SaaS. And while AWS’s growth is down a bit, it’s still at epic levels, Azure isn’t even really down, and Google Cloud is growing faster than ever. And yet … the stock markets have plummeted.

AWS

AWS Venture Capital Azure Cloud

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

So DigitalOcean is the quiet Cloud platform that keeps on growing. Focusing on smaller developers, in some ways it’s been a bit overshadowed by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. DigitialOcean doesn’t want to take AWS, Azure and Google on in the enterprise and doesn’t really try. That’s impressive.

Azure

Azure AWS SMB Cloud

5 Interesting Learnings from ServiceNow at $7 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2023

That’s pretty efficient for SaaS. #5. But many in SaaS are seeing tougher times in Europe than North America. Microsoft also reported strong growth overall and for Azure and Cloud especially. As you can see, ACV has grown ~20% over the past 2 years, from $3.4m to $4m ACV. #4. Some softness in EMEA. But ServiceNow?

Azure

Azure Cloud Enterprise Payment Features

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $260 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2024

But it’s become so central to Cloud the past years, and both LinkedIn and GitHub (which Microsoft acquired) are at the pulse and heart of B2B and B2D, respectively. Just about everything in Cloud, SaaS and AI is firing on all cylinders at Microsoft: Azure and Cloud up +30% (!) Overall Cloud up +22% (!)

Azure

Azure Cloud AI B2B

10 Predictions for Data at the Impact Summit

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Look no further than the massive companies pushing the public & the private market forward: Snowflake, Databricks, Amazon, Azure, Google Cloud. It’s quite possible that data products have created more market cap than any other subsegment of SaaS in the last five years.

Data

Data Azure Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

So is it possible to be too efficient in SaaS and Cloud? Many have used Digital Ocean at the cheaper, simpler version of AWS-Azure-Digital Ocean to get going fast and quickly. Even small cloud customers worked to bring down their spend in 2023. #5. And if so, maybe that’s Digital Ocean. But you’d be wrong ?

Scale

Scale AWS Azure Cloud

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Hyperscaler Preview Next week Amazon, Microsoft and Google report earnings and we’ll see Q3 data for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review

Clouded Judgement 8.2.24 - Uncertainty Everywhere

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 2, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Cloud Giants Report Q2 We also got the Q2 quarters from AWS / Azure / GCP this week! The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Follow along to stay up to date! Today it’s ~5x.

Cloud

Cloud Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS

Clouded Judgement 9.27.24 - The Foundation of Foundation Models

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Foundation Models Are to AI what S3 was to the Public Cloud Many people look at 2006 as the birth of the public cloud - the year Amazon launched AWS. Follow along to stay up to date! However, a couple things happened.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS Azure

When did cloud computing start to become popular?

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2019

Around 2013 or so, the Cloud started to grow far faster than any of us had thought it would: Amazon Web Services revenue 2018 | Statista. It turned our CIOs and bigger companies were ready to transfer as much as another 20% of their $1 trillion+ IT budgets to Cloud far faster than any of us knew. The markets took a while to catch up.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Enterprise

The Macroeconomic Signal to Watch for Software & Infrastructure Startups

Tom Tunguz

MAY 31, 2022

Large SaaS and IaaS vendors are precisely that: indexes of software buyers. Amazon Web Services and Azure, the business units inside Amazon and Microsoft serve and sell to small, medium, and large companies in every major geography. Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud Platform. That should bode well for SaaS startups.

Azure

Azure Software Startup Cloud

Clouded Judgement 1.6.23

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 6, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Cloud Downgrades This week UBS came out with a couple research reports citing concerns in AWS / Azure growth. This brings me back to AWS / Azure downgrades. Follow along to stay up to date! It’s very tricky to predict.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Underperforming Technical Team

Clouded Judgement 1.27.23

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 27, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Azure (Microsoft) Quarter The week the first of the cloud giants reported - Azure. Early Look at 2023 Guides Given the Azure weakness reported on Tuesday, all software tumbled Wednesday morning with most names down 5-10%.

Cloud

Cloud Azure Pricing Subscription

Clouded Judgement 5.31.24 - Software Sentiment Crumbles

Clouded Judgement

MAY 31, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. I’m as excited as ever about the long term cloud software markets. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Follow along to stay up to date! Coming in to Q1 there was broader optimism.

Cloud

Cloud Software GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AI

Thanks to Demandwell, DuploCloud, Prismatic, SafeBase, and WorkOS for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2023!

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2022

We help B2B SaaS marketers turn organic search into a source of repeatable revenue through software and coaching. The platform automates the provisioning of your application to the cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), integrating cloud ops, DevOps, and security/compliance with 24×7 monitoring and support.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS Enterprise readiness

Clouded Judgement 4.28.23

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 28, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft), and Google Cloud (Google) all reported this week. Azure reported on Tuesday and gave us that glimmer of hope. Azure came in at 31% (constant currency). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS AI Search

Thanks to ChartMogul, ChurnZero, Cledara, Secureframe, and Verdane for Sponsoring SaaStr Europa 2023!

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2022

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! Our mission is to build powerful and secure cloud software for subscription businesses of all sizes, with a strong emphasis on good design and ease of use. Grab tickets here. .

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS Enterprise readiness

Clouded Judgement 10.28.22

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Hyperscalers Report Quarterly Earnings This week we saw AWS (Amazon), GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) report earnings. At the same time, Azure came in below expectations. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

Trending Sources

Clouded Judgement 4.26.24 - Azure Gives Positive Infra Software Preview

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

5 Interesting Learnings from Salesforce at $40 Billion in ARR

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

Clouded Judgement 10.11.24 - Budget Flush

Clouded Judgement 2.7.25 - "Group + Triage" AI Systems

A Look Back at Q1 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

We End the Year at All-Time Lows for SaaS Growth. A Buying Signal — Or The End of an Era?

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $200 Billion in ARR

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

MongoDB, Elastic, Okta: Things Are Tough Out There; Monday, CrowdStrike, Shopify: Not So Fast

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

Microsoft as a Mirror - What We Can Expect for SaaS in 2023

Why Would Microsoft Buy Wunderlist and Later Just Shut it Down?

58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024

Snowflake, CrowdStike and SumoLogic: “How to Leverage the Cloud Giants to Scale to 100 Million ARR and Beyond”

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

Clouded Judgement 5.3.24 - Hyperscalers Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Reports

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

5 Interesting Learnings from ServiceNow at $7 Billion in ARR

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $260 Billion in ARR

10 Predictions for Data at the Impact Summit

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Clouded Judgement 8.2.24 - Uncertainty Everywhere

Clouded Judgement 9.27.24 - The Foundation of Foundation Models

When did cloud computing start to become popular?

The Macroeconomic Signal to Watch for Software & Infrastructure Startups

Clouded Judgement 1.6.23

Clouded Judgement 1.27.23

Clouded Judgement 5.31.24 - Software Sentiment Crumbles

Thanks to Demandwell, DuploCloud, Prismatic, SafeBase, and WorkOS for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2023!

Clouded Judgement 4.28.23

Thanks to ChartMogul, ChurnZero, Cledara, Secureframe, and Verdane for Sponsoring SaaStr Europa 2023!

Clouded Judgement 10.28.22

Stay Connected