Alphabet and Microsoft report strong quarters backed by growth in cloud offerings

As financial institutions eye significant digital shifts, cloud providers continued to rake in the gains in the first quarter of the year. In their quarterly financial reports released Wednesday, Alphabet and Microsoft both reported a significant uptick in revenues and signaled that persistent demand for digital services delivered through the cloud has bolstered their financial performance. [caption id="attachment_218336" align="alignright" width="300"] Image by Canstock[/caption] Microsoft’s revenues rose 19% in the latest quarter, with its intelligent cloud segment raking in $15.1 billion alone, a 23% year-on-year jump. Google parent company Alphabet revealed in its filings that its revenues were up 34% on a yearly basis, and its cloud revenues grew by 46%, bringing in $4 billion in revenues in the first quarter. Both tech giants have also turned their gaze toward offering cloud services to banks and financial services. “This quarter, we introduced new industry clouds for financial services, manufacturing, and non-profits, building on the momentum of our existing clouds,” Satya Nadella, chief executive at Microsoft, said during the company’s earnings call. Dedicated clouds for financial services are also an approach followed by cloud computing competitor IBM , which also recently added PNC Bank and Mexican bank Banorte as clients. Noting that Alphabet, too, has seen strong momentum in demand for data cloud services, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s “strength in [artificial intelligence] and [machine learning] is also helping financial services customers, like HSBC, Commerce bank, SCB group and BBVA improve efficiency of payments, reduce fraud and risk and deliver faster payment solutions.” Earlier this year, the $2.9 trillion HSBC announced that it had partnered with Google Cloud to introduce an internal chatbot, named ORRA, aimed at speeding up employee queries about policy questions. Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Paypal and Keybank also use Google’s cloud services. Nadella added that firms like Coca-Cola have also been using Microsoft’s robotic process automation (RPA) offerings to speed up processes and integrate new tools with, “legacy systems to automate shipment verification, payroll processing.” In other highlights, Microsoft indicated that increased digital activity had also bumped the demand for its security offerings. “This is driving increased demand for our end-to-end capabilities across identity, security, compliance, and management, backed by cloud-scale AI and human expertise,” Nadella said. He added that more than 400,000 customers use the firm’s security tools, including the $2.6 trillion UBS. While ad sales continue to be main driver of Google’s revenue, the operating losses suffered by its cloud division have been reduced. The cloud segment posted an operating loss of $974 million this quarter, down from $1.73 billion a year earlier. Google Cloud also announced Tuesday that it will partner with financial services enterprise technology provider NCR Corporation in a bid to expand cloud availability of NCR’s digital banking software and payments processing tools. Looking forward, both tech firms noted that they expect to see continued revenue growth for the cloud segments, with Microsoft indicating that it expects revenue, “between $16.2 and $16.45 billion for its intelligent cloud segment,” in the next quarter. Shares of Microsoft [NASDAQ: MSFT] were trading at $255.14 at 1:30 PM, down 2.6% for the day. The technology firm has a market cap of $1.92 trillion. Alphabet stock [NASDAQ: GOOGL] was trading for $2,379 as of 1:30 PM, up 3.88% from market open, and the firm has an overall market capitalization of $1.61 trillion.

Alphabet and Microsoft report strong quarters backed by growth in cloud offerings

Microsoft's cloud segment raked in $15B and Google's brought in $4B in Q1

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Accenture: Bank adoption of automation slower than other industries

Accenture: Bank adoption of automation slower than other industries

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Alphabet and Microsoft report strong quarters backed by growth in cloud offerings

Microsoft's cloud segment raked in $15B and Google's brought in $4B in Q1

Citizens Bank and Trust banks on Fiserv and APIs

Accenture: Bank adoption of automation slower than other industries

Accenture: Bank adoption of automation slower than other industries

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