Go to the cloud or 'fall behind,' Microsoft's Nadella says

Tech

Published: 15 Nov. 2022, 17:01 Updated: 15 Nov. 2022, 18:15

Go to the cloud or 'fall behind,' Microsoft's Nadella says

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gives a keynote speech under the title “Doing More with Less with the Microsoft Cloud″ at the “Microsoft Ignite Spotlight on Korea″ held at the InterContinental Seoul Coex, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Microsoft, the world's No. 2 cloud provider, warns Korean companies to move to the cloud or "fall behind."

“By 2025, 95 percent of the workloads are not just going to be about moving to the cloud but going to be cloud-optimized or cloud-native. So you can easily fall behind if you’re not part of that 95 percent,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on Tuesday at the “Microsoft Ignite Spotlight on Korea" that took place at the InterContinental Seoul Coex, southern Seoul.

This is the first time in four years for the Microsoft CEO to visit Korea.

“Cloud is 95 percent plus more efficient than any other on-premise solution,” he said.

The “Microsoft Ignite Spotlight on Korea” is a developers conference with a focus on Korea. Nadella will take part in two similar events in Singapore and Japan.

Tuesday’s event revolved around the company’s insights into overcoming the economic uncertainties with Microsoft’s technologies, especially with cloud offerings, under the title “Doing More with Less with the Microsoft Cloud.”

“It’s time for us to be forward-leaning — that’s why we’re building out and expanding our data center regions all over the world, right here in Korea as well,” Nadella said.

The number of data centers in Korea was not revealed, but Microsoft operates more than 200 data centers and 60 “Azure regions” around the world, according to Nadella. Azure regions are data centers built with special low-latency technology to ensure high quality performance of the Azure cloud application.

The “Microsoft Ignite Spotlight on Korea″ was held at the InterContinental Seoul Coex, southern Seoul, on Tuesday, as a developers' conference with a focus on Korea. [YONHAP]

The company also declined to reveal Microsoft's cloud market share in Korea, though Amazon's AWS, the world's largest cloud provider, has a significant presence in the country and a number of large clients.

“We have the most regions of anyone and many Korean companies are expanding all over the world and we also definitely want to partner deeply,” he said.

The CEO gave examples of seven Korean companies that are readily making use of Microsoft’s Azure cloud to build their business on, including Emart, Doosan Enerbility, Celltrion, Geninus, CLO, Lunit and Chungbuk Technopark. The companies also use the Azure Arc service to help them utilize the cloud system across different data centers and cloud services, Nadella said.

“They’re not only obviously changing the world right here in Korea but they’re having an impact all over the world,” he said.

“To me, that’s what really helps us realize our mission, which is ultimately about empowering every person and every organization in Korea to change the world.”

Nadella met with local tech companies on Monday and Tuesday, including game publisher NCSoft’s CEO Kim Taek-jin, SK Inc. Chairman Chey Tae-won and SK Square CEO Park Jung-ho on Tuesday morning prior to the “Ignite” event.

Microsoft is a game publisher itself, but it has been expanding more aggressively in recent years. The company announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion last January and recently invested 21 billion won ($15.9 million) in Korean game publisher Wemade, a company active in developing blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies.

SK Telecom and Microsoft have signed an agreement to bring Xbox games to the cloud.

Nadella may meet with other business leaders while in Korea, but no details have been released.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]