Long-time Microsoft cloud executive Julia White is set to jump ship to SAP in a move that could back SAP’s attempt to bolster its cloud business. The vendor also teased an uptick in business to end an eventful 2020, though continued to caution that overall growth will remain muted for the foreseeable future.

SAP named White as its new chief marketing and solutions officer, and also named her to its executive board. She will continue to be based in the U.S., and focus on product, industry, and digital marketing.

White had spent the past 20 years at Microsoft, with the last five years leading product marketing for Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. She was also a common sight at Microsoft events, typically running through the cloud giant’s various Azure updates.

“SAP is going through a critical transformation,” White said in a statement. “It has a unique opportunity to help redefine how successful businesses run, and the leadership team has made bold and courageous commitments to accelerate their cloud innovation to this end. I am excited to contribute to that journey and thank the supervisory board for their confidence in me.”

SAP has been attempting to take advantage of its cloud roots and position in the broader ecosystem to drive more revenues. The vendor last quarter was forced to postpone an ambitious financial plan that took advantage of its cloud business due to a slower-than-expected recovery from on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, SAP also said that it would increase its focus on those cloud operations in order to take advantage of what it views as the future of its operations. It expects that investment will nearly triple its cloud revenues to $26 billion by 2025.

That cloud focus was initiated in early 2019 under SAP’s previous CEO Bill McDermott. That plan included an ambitious goal to construct a path toward a 75% cloud gross margin by 2023. SAP is now focused on an 80% cloud gross margin target for 2025.

SAP has said that it will remain focused on partnering with cloud hyperscalers like Microsoft as it targets specific markets with its software platform.

“The hyperscalers are our best friends on the cloud infrastructure side because this is not a business where SAP is actually playing and also doesn’t want to play in the future,” CEO Christian Klein explained during the vendor's Sapphire Now event last year. “They have huge scale, they have infrastructure which provides our customers with the elasticity they need and with that comes a low [total cost of ownership]. Partnering with them is the best decision we could have ever made.”

White’s appointment also adds a U.S. angle to SAP’s board. The vendor’s past leadership changes had angled its board more toward its German roots.

During its SAP User Group event late last year, Klein noted that those moves had “created maybe here or there a bit of concern, but it’s a matter of fact that SAP is a truly global company.” He noted that SAP has more than 200,000 customers in North America, as well as more than 25,000 employees spread across more than 40 locations.

“Yes, the board is maybe a little German these days and this again will change,” Klein said, before citing a number of executives based in North America. “So when you exactly look at the level of management underneath the executive board I actually have more one-on-ones with the management team in North America. And we also will make an even stronger commitment to our customers in North America.”

Along with the White appointment, SAP also named Scott Russell as head of its customer success organization and a member of its executive board. Russell had previously served as president of SAP’s Asia Pacific Japan business. He will take over the customer success oversight and executive board seat from Adaire Fox-Martin.

The executive changes come nearly a year after SAP reconfigured its management structure under current CEO Christian Klein. That move saw previous co-CEO Jennifer Morgan exit SAP, leaving Klein as the sole CEO. The company said the move was prompted by the need for a more streamlined decision-making process in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

SAP had previously revamped its organizational structure that included the reassignment of operational divisions to its executive team and the trimming of its board.

SAP also released preliminary fourth-quarter financial results that included a sequential uptick compared to a rough Q3. Despite ongoing operational challenges tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the vendor noted that cloud revenues increased 8% year over year for the quarter and were up 17% for the full year.

SAP is also looking to pocket a substantial haul from the pending initial public offering of its Qualtrics division. That IPO could net Qualtrics nearly $1.3 billion in funding and a $14 billion valuation, with SAP maintaining control over the division.