Microsoft cloud revenue reaccelerates, sending profit above Street estimates

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday reported fiscal second-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street expectations, driven by the first acceleration of Azure cloud computing revenue growth in eight quarters amid a pitched battle with Amazon.com Inc's cloud unit.The results sent shares in the world's largest software company to all-time highs in after-hours trading. They also reflected the approach of Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who for five years has re-centered Microsoft around the cloud, renting out its computing power and technology to large businesses.Microsoft said Azure, its primary competitor to Amazon's cloud, grew 62% in the quarter, down from a 76% revenue growth rate the year before but up from 59% in the fiscal first quarter.Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said increased consumption of Azure services, which include offerings such as computing power to run applications and data storage services, drove the increased revenue growth.