"It signals to the market Microsoft is no longer a runner-up and can be viewed as a leader in the category where they can surpass AWS in certain areas," Zukin said.
Shah also leads security product development teams for user and infrastructure-oriented security and runs the Microsoft Security Response Center, which responds to attacks against Microsoft's cloud, as well as the data center security team, which protects the physical security of Microsoft data centers.
Simplifying artificial intelligence and machine learning for cloud customers could make Microsoft more competitive in the fierce cloud-computing battle with AWS, and Boyd is a leader in that effort. Erin Chapple, Azure Compute corporate vice presidentChapple is the head of product for Azure Compute, which provides the infrastructure customers need to build applications.
Sheppard joined Microsoft in April about six months after leaving Intel, where she was vice president and general manager of the Saffron AI Group.