Becoming Microsoft CEO was 'beyond my wildest dreams': Nadella

"Having grown up in India, the idea that I would have the opportunity to talk to all of you as CEO of Microsoft was beyond my wildest dreams. Admittedly, my interests at that time were a bit more focused on cricket than on technology," he said at the Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud Conference, 2014 that was video-cast to a gathering of developers, business and technology decision makers and IT professionals.

Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft in February this year.

"I believe the opportunities ahead for India with the Azure cloud platform are tremendous and I encourage you to seize all of them," he said.

Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform. It enables quick deployment and management of applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers.

"It is amazing though, to think of the advancement in technology over the past few years and the opportunity for developers in India today," Nadella, an electrical engineering graduate from Mangalore University, said.

Nadella is the only third CEO after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in the 38-year history of Microsoft.

"We are at a pivotal time in our industry: living in and developing for a mobile first, cloud first world," he said.

Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992, had previously served as the Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise Group.

Stating that Azure is a powerful platform for the entire Indian ecosystem of IT professionals, developers and start-ups to bring their applications to markets worldwide, he said: "It helps Indian customers leapfrog to the cloud, and accrue significant cost savings."