Ex-Microsoft engineer: Azure runs 1M+ VM services, adds a datacenter every 4 days
viksit · x · 2026-11-06
A former Microsoft engineer shares inside observations:
- Absurd scale: a $100M ARR service doesn't even make a footnote in exec decks; leadership only cares past $1B. $1B+ deals are common in the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Azure has 250 services spanning every quadrant of the growth-share matrix, from stagnant multi-million-dollar services to hypergrowth and cash cows.
- Infrastructure: even the smallest Azure services run on 10K+ VMs; large ones on 1M+ (possibly 10M+). Microsoft is stamping a new datacenter into the ground every four days, yet remains permanently capacity-constrained. Azure brings in $100B revenue and keeps growing.
More from Companies & People
- METR report: Anthropic is speeding up, not pacing, and redacted the key parts — asusarla · 2026-11-06
- Professor Matt Beane takes leave to build SkillBench for AI-era skill development — mattbeane · 2026-11-06
- UCSB professor takes leave to build SkillBench, backed by Reid Hoffman and Felicis — mattbeane · 2026-11-06
- SkillBench raises preseed funding as Matt Beane scales his skill-preservation thesis — mattbeane · 2026-11-06
- Why SF tech stays ahead: frequent job-hopping turns every engineer into an aggregate of many experiences — trq212 · 2026-11-06
- NVIDIA × Lilly AI lab hiring to build next-gen AI drug discovery in Bay Area — karsten_kreis · 2026-11-06