For the first time, Microsoft has put a dollar figure on Azure: $33.2 billion in revenue for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, up 48% from a year earlier. That makes the cloud platform Microsoft’s largest single business, and it lets investors compare it directly with AWS and Google Cloud, whose parents already report cloud sales in dollars.

The number came with Microsoft’s fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday. Total revenue rose 19% to $92.3 billion, operating income grew 21% to $45.9 billion and GAAP net income climbed 32% to $36.6 billion. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $63.9 billion, up 30%, and commercial remaining performance obligation, the contracted business not yet recognized as revenue, jumped 73% to $677 billion.

“Results exceeded expectations across revenue, operating income, and earnings per share,” Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said in the release.

A new way of slicing the company

The Azure disclosure is part of a reporting overhaul that took effect this quarter.…