I make https://weedtraqr.com/ - we are operational in Washington and Oregon - and now apparently compete with MS.
The company Microsoft is working with (Agrisoft) doesn't even operate in WA, or OR yet. And has been sold like two times in the last two years (first to Surna[0] then to Kind[1])
Additionally their "partnership" is really just Agrisoft getting free Azure hosting. The headline is very click-bait.
Microsoft may seem like a big scary competitor, but they've been dead for some time (1). If all they're doing it providing free hosting then they're not really competing with you.
Microsoft is nowhere near dead, not in the short to medium term anyway - and if you're a startup, that is all that matters. MS can put a 100 million dollars into a product sphere and not bat an eye if it fails within a few years (see Nokia). I wouldn't discount them anytime soon.
One possible thing to take away from this: Your competitor might have an inferior product, market share, etc, but possible has better traditional marketing/PR.
The company Microsoft is working with (Agrisoft) doesn't even operate in WA, or OR yet. And has been sold like two times in the last two years (first to Surna[0] then to Kind[1])
Additionally their "partnership" is really just Agrisoft getting free Azure hosting. The headline is very click-bait.
[0] http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/surna-inc-acquires-m...
[1] http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kind-financial-acqui...