How Tom Keane and Microsoft Set Azure Up for Long-Lasting Global Success

Within a few short years, cloud computing went from a novel idea to an industrial must-have for businesses around the world. With the push toward the user-focused Web3 internet and mounting concerns for more data privacy and security, we’ve seen businesses from countless industries quickly understand the importance of rethinking the siloed networking and server infrastructures of the past. While getting board-level approval for new initiatives is certainly a win, the on-the-ground implementation of those initiatives is another story. Tom Keane, a recognized expert in the fields of product design, hyperscale architecture, cyber security, and AI, was a long-term Microsoft executive who led the development and global rollout of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service, and his experience at Microsoft and his leadership of Azure are recognized as two critical driving forces of cloud computing’s ubiquity today.

Azure was initially built for Microsoft’s internal use – a highly effective application management system for Microsoft-managed data centers. Providing the same services as a new offering to Microsoft’s customers only made sound business sense, so Tom Keane was a key leader tasked with helping to build Azure for public use and onboarding Microsoft’s large and wide customer base to the new system – all while guaranteeing unmatched service uptime and customer care.

Some of the problems that Tom Keane initially faced when leading the global expansion of Azure were navigating regulatory policies in international markets, understanding user sentiments and needs, and helping customers overcome the uncertainty they had when it came to cloud computing. Tom Keane said that “Many customers weren’t really sure if the cloud could be trusted, and they wondered, will it work? Is it reliable? Is it secure? Can I put my information in there?”

Today, customers expect the apps and services that they use – many of which operate on Azure since Azure supports the corporations and data that cover 85% of global GDP – to operate seamlessly when only a few years ago, getting C-level execs to agree to a cloud shift was a challenge. “The approach I took at the time was to work very closely with our largest customers to understand their concerns and pain points,” Tom Keane said. “From there, we could adapt to local needs and restrictions and could design effective solutions that solved real-life problems. That is all you need for the successful rollout of new offerings.”

Tom Keane says that having worked for years as a leader on Office 365, which was Microsoft’s first commercial cloud offering, it made sense for him to lead Azure’s expansion to new markets and customers. Tom Keane was an instrumental player in scaling Office 365 to over 100 million users and helped guide the product’s design and development as well. “Building a new product that came with a new technology paradigm, a new business model, and new challenges was an incredible experience for me,” Tom Keane said of Office 365. “It brought new customers to our platform, and very few people had done what we did before. And it was all brand new to Microsoft.”

One of the biggest challenges, however, was grappling with the many challenges that existed in Microsoft’s global markets of operation while building and managing a large-scale engineering team and Azure’s underlying tech infrastructure. For example, China, one of Azure’s first markets, is an extremely complex market. According to Tom Keane, “The regulatory and compliance perspectives in China – and the market size – make working there a challenge.” Similar hurdles had to be overcome by Tom Keane and the Azure team when onboarding multinational customers that worked in China and other international jurisdictions – each with its own rules and compliance requirements – such as Coca-Cola, Ford, General Motors, and L'Oreal. Doing this required a deep understanding of local needs and laws and then designing, building, and shipping robust products that operated at a very high level within the given restrictions.

Another set of customer concerns that Tom Keane and his team had to overcome was with regard to digital sovereignty – the idea that users should have control and ownership of their own digital data. Providing the expected level of data control and ownership within the infrastructure and protocols powering Azure’s global network of cloud servers required meticulous planning and collaboration with many entities. This meant understanding the needs and concerns of, for example, financial institutions while ensuring patient data used by healthcare companies complied with relevant laws such as HIPAA. As Tom Keane has said, “There is an immense responsibility on the cloud to behave and operate as critical infrastructure while still innovating, which is an incredibly tight and difficult balance to hit.”

Working within the limitations set by privacy regulations and legislation such as HIPAA in the United States and the GDPR in Europe placed added emphasis on developing offerings that were not just easy to use but were equally safe, secure, performant, and reliable. Tom Keane says that these are all core components of Azure’s infrastructure, and the platform now provides high-performance capabilities to millions of users around the world – many of whom did not know they even needed it a few years ago. For many, Tom Keane’s leadership and the growth of Azure are why cloud computing is as commonplace as it is today.

“I think entrepreneurialism, growth, constant learning, and the ability to build and disrupt have been the primary themes of my career over the last two decades,” Tom Keane said. “I firmly believe that digital disruption, hyper-scale cloud services, and ubiquitous computing can help us reimagine what we can do with different workloads in different scenarios to address current challenges and create new value-added use cases.”

Although he has now moved on from his 20-year tenure at Microsoft, Tom Keane’s impact on the global cloud computing revolution is undeniable. He has advised Microsoft’s senior leadership team and presented to Microsoft’s board of directors on issues related to cybersecurity, AI, network infrastructure, and product development. He is also a sought-after speaker and thought leader on issues regarding digital sovereignty and digital transformation. Tom Keane was named Cloud Industry Executive of the Year by WashingtonExec in 2021, and he continues to work in the tech space, building on the lessons and experiences of Azure, Office 365, and the work he did in countless markets with hundreds of government, advisory, oversight, and compliance organizations across the globe.

Tom Keane has since formally left his positions at Microsoft and Azure. However, the blueprint that he, Microsoft, and the Azure team laid out for successful product development and launch in complex international markets to provide services to hundreds of millions of users while complying with many regional limitations and restrictions is one that others aspiring for high levels of success in the tech and business spaces can follow.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes