Exactly. From the perspective of high level decision makers, PaaS is heading toward being a commodity good, so differentiating your platform can be what makes a deal and making regulatory compliance "easy" in heavily regulated industries can be a pretty strong differentiator.

If you have an existing business relationship with a company and already trust them to help you navigate regulatory hoops, there's going to be strong inclination to continue to trust them as you expand your infrastructure to the cloud.

Like you said, it's the kind of very smart, long-term marketing I tend to associate with "New"/Nadella Microsoft.