Microsoft to Share Future of Its Cloud Business at October 20 Event

Notably, the event will see some of the top officials from the Redmond giant attending the event including the company's CEO Satya Nadella alongside Executive Vice President, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise group, Scott Guthrie. The event will be available to watch via live webcast on the company's News Centre site.

Microsoft is facing stiff competition from other companies such as Google and Amazon for cloud customers. The company is expected to talk about how its approach is different from some of its rivals and more details about the company's cloud investments, including the Microsoft Cloud Platform with Azure, Windows Server, and System Center.

Rod Trent of Windows IT Pro speculates, "Microsoft rarely initiates an event like this without some big announcements. I'm told that both Nadella and Guthrie will deliver a sort of "State of the Union" for Microsoft's Cloud properties, talking about current investments and future direction, and then including customer use cases."

Recently, Microsoft unveiled the next version of its Windows operating system called Windows 10, with the company deciding to skip version 9 to emphasise advances it made on the operating system to help it cater to a world centred around mobile devices and Internet services.

(Also see: Ten Things We Know About Windows 10)

Windows 10 promises features such as better security, easier manageability, and improved capabilities for dealing with security threats, as well as a new two-column Start menu with old-style icons for pinned or recent programs on the left, and live tiles on the right displaying updates and information.

It's worth noting that the Windows 10 name would be applied to future versions of Windows Phone as well as Windows on tablets, desktop PCs and hybrid portable devices.

Prior to this, Microsoft announced plans to offer its commercial cloud services from Indian data centres. The company had also revealed that it would offer its Azure and Office 365 cloud services from the new data centres.