India, Oct. 28 -- The coronavirus pandemic has driven demand for cloud services sky-high, Microsoft has found as its commercial cloud revenue soars by a yearly 31% to $15.2 billion.

It is generally a good time for the Redmond, Washington-based company.

Its first-quarter revenues, $37.2 billion, are up 12% from the same period a year ago, beating analysts' expectations by $1.5 billion.

The share of gross domestic product spent on information technology is meanwhile set to double in the coming decade, from its current 5%, predicts its chief executive, Satya Nadella.

And this is not a trend COVID-19 is likely to slow.

"In a world of uncertainty and constraints, every person and every organization needs more digital technology to recover...