Amazon's expansion into different industries is driving some of its new competitors to Microsoft's cloud, The Motley Fool reports.
Four notes:
1. Amazon's cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, is the largest provider of public cloud services. Microsoft's Azure follows closely behind.
2. However, as Amazon has expanded into the grocery and pharmacy spaces, retailers are becoming more hesitant to strike partnerships with what may soon be a major competitor.
3. Albertsons Safeway, a supermarket chain, recently signed a three-year agreement with Microsoft to make Azure its preferred cloud platform. In an interview with CNBC, Albertsons Executive Vice President and CIO Anuj Dhanda, PhD, said the company selected Azure because of its strong technical capabilities and because it isn't a competitor.
4. Albertsons joins a growing list of grocery and pharmacy companies signing with Microsoft's cloud, who perhaps might be wary of supporting a competitor by paying for its services. Other companies to recently ink deals with Azure include Walgreens, Kroger and Walmart.