Microsoft Intelligent Cloud, including Azure, now its largest segment

The age of the azure is on our doorstep.

For the first time in more than three years, the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud reporting segment, which includes the Azure public cloud that competes with Amazon Web Services, has generated more revenue for Microsoft than the other two segments: Productivity and Business Process , which contains Office, and More Personal Computing, which includes Windows.

To be sure, the Intelligent Cloud segment contains several products other than Azure, including SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, Consulting Services and Support.

Nevertheless, Azure benefits from a secular move to the cloud that has also benefited other companies, including Alibaba, Google, IBM and Oracle.

Azure's annual growth remains significant at 64% on an annualized basis in the fourth fiscal quarter, although it no longer doubles each year as in 2016. Companies that have been buying software from Microsoft for years have begun adopting Azure . AT & T announced plans to transfer workloads to Azure earlier this week.

Windows revenue generated by device makers grew 9% annualized this quarter, as users switched to Windows 10 update.

Meanwhile, more traditional Intelligent Cloud products are growing. The end of support for SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 has resulted in growth of server products in Intelligent Cloud, the company said.

Microsoft has used the three current reporting segments since the first quarter of fiscal 2016, the third quarter of 2015. Previously, Microsoft used two major reporting segments: Commercial, and Peripherals and Consumers.

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