Microsoft acquires start-up Mover, shortly after buying Movere, to get more data into its cloud
- Mover can help move files from Box and Dropbox into Microsoft services like OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Last month, Microsoft acquired Movere to simplify migration to Azure.
First it was Movere. Now it's Mover.
Under Satya Nadella's leadership, Microsoft is concentrating much of its dealmaking on bolstering the value of its cloud technology by helping companies move their data to its various services. On Monday, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Mover, whose software "will help make it easier than ever for customers to migrate files to Microsoft 365," Jeff Teper, corporate vice president for Office, SharePoint and OneDrive at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.
The purchase (terms weren't disclosed) comes about six weeks after Microsoft announced the acquisition of Movere, and said at the time the technology would make migration to its Azure infrastructure "an easier process for our customers."
Cloud-based Office services are already a major part of Microsoft's overall business, and the company continues to invest in them as it takes on rivals like Google. In 2017, Microsoft brought in more revenue from commercial customers of Office 365 portfolio than from traditional Office licenses for the first time.
Azure, a competitor to Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, forms the backbone of applications like OneDrive, which people can use to sync and share a variety of files.
Mover can help companies move data from Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and Google Drive into Microsoft's OneDrive and SharePoint, Teper wrote. The technology can also transfer files to the Microsoft cloud services from companies' on-premises data centers.
Mover's customers include Autodesk, Symantec, Workiva and Xero, according to the company's website. The start-up was founded in 2012 and is based in Edmonton, Canada, with around 70 employees, according to LinkedIn. Investors include Double M Partners and Medra Capital.
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