Internal Politics May Have Kept Microsoft From Dealing Amazon A Serious Blow (MSFT)

Internal Politics May Have Kept Microsoft From Dealing Amazon A Serious Blow (MSFT):

Microsoft's latest Windows operating system for enterprise servers launched yesterday and should sell well.
Microsoft is calling it a cloud-friendly operating system.
But will its success cause Microsoft to win lots of new customers for its own Amazon-competitor, Azure?
Probably not, one source close to Microsoft told BI.
He says the new OS does not integrate with Windows Azure "in any concrete way."
He says internal politics kept the Windows and Azure groups from working closely together.
"So no, I don't think it'll help with Azure adoption in any way."
We asked Microsoft about new features integrated with Azure and were sent a list:

• A feature in Windows Azure let's IT folks move apps between their own data center servers and Azure more easily.
• WS 2012 and Azure can now securely communicate though a virtual private networks.
• And Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure can be managed through a single management portal.

How is Azure doing as a product? Hard to say.

Microsoft has been shy about reporting exactly how many users it has for its cloud. In May, Azure marketing exec Bob Kelly, said that Microsoft had in the "high tens of thousands" of customers for it and was "adding hundreds a day."
Microsoft may have missed a good opportunity to beef up Azure's adoption.
That's because Windows Server 2012 has been getting good reviews. It offers a lot of improvements over the previous server. Enterprises will probably move to adopt it sooner than they adopt Windows 8.
We asked Microsoft if politics between the Windows Server team and the Azure team kept them from working more closely together. This is Microsoft's response:
"Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure are designed and developed for close integration to help customers build, manage and deliver applications across both their own datacenters and the Windows Azure public cloud, or in many cases both.  Windows Server and Windows Azure are the foundation of the Cloud OS, which offers customers common application development, virtualization, management and identity technologies that can be applied to both."
Are you a Microsoft insider with insight to share? We want to hear it! We are discreet. jbort@businessinsider.com or @Julie188 on Twitter.

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