Microsoft Corp unveiled a new set of technologies on Tuesday aimed at enabling its cloud computing services function in data centres it doesn't control, including those of competitors.

Microsoft executives and analysts credit the approach with the company's ascent in the cloud computing infrastructure industry, which Gartner estimates to be worth USD 64.3 billion and in which Microsoft is only second behind Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services. Microsoft announced last week that sales from Azure, its main cloud service, increased by 48 percent, allowing it to surpass Apple Inc as the world's most valuable publicly listed corporation. Microsoft's goal has been to build its most profitable cloud software services, such as database tools, so that they may run in its own data centres, customers' data centres, or even competitors' data centres, such as Amazon's.

According to Scott Guthrie, Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence director, the move has encouraged some customers to use Microsoft's services when they can't always utilise Microsoft's data centres. According to Guthrie, the Royal Bank of Canada is required by law to maintain part of its computing operations in its own data centres, and it utilises Azure Arc to connect those facilities to Microsoft's cloud.

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