Microsoft borrows from Amazon’s philosophy as its cloud grows

#Microsoft is learning from #Amazon.com, borrowing some of the company’s guiding principles in a competition to provide web-based technology services. Scott Guthrie, who leads Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise unit, said Microsoft in recent years has based more of its decision making on data-driven experiments, as well as what it thinks customers want, rather than what competitors might be doing. Both traits are hallmarks of Amazon’s hard-charging culture. “I think partly because we are based in each other’s backyards, there is a bit of cross-pollination between both organizations,” Guthrie said at a GeekWire technology conference Wednesday in Bellevue.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-borrows-from-amazons-philosophy-as-its-cloud-grows/