With Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:$MSFT) popular business cloud computing services and it’s steady flow of business for personal computer software, it should come as no surprise that the world’s largest software company is doing well. However, Thursday’s release of their quarterly report had exceeded even their own expectations.

Microsoft’s stocks rose 3.1 percent to $81.20. The predicted revenues given by Analysts for the company’s intelligent cloud business was on average expected to be $6.70 billion. The revenue for cloud business rose 14 percent to $6.92 billion, in the first fiscal quarter.

According to Stephanie Rodriguez, director of Microsoft’s investor relations, a major influential factor, which assisted in raising Microsoft’s gross margin to 57 percent, was Azure’s revenue. That revenue grew 90 percent, compared to a 97 percent growth rate in the following the quarter.

Finally, in 2015 Chief Executive, Satya Nadelle, set up a cloud revenue goal of $20 billion which was to be reached by 2018. The company was able to reach $20.4 billion in the quarter.

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