Category: News

Software king of the world Microsoft has started another campaign to ween addicts off Windows 7.

Microsoft has told its channel partners that those customers still on Windows 7 need to be targeted for upgrading to its latest OS and has advised resellers to start banging the drum around the forthcoming end of support deadline. Vole said that partners needed to renew the call for a move to Windows 10.

Louisa Gauthier, product and marketing leader at Microsoft. said: “The end of support is coming in 2020 and it’s time to make the shift to 10.”

Microsoft has put together a video encouraging users to move to a combination of Windows 10, more up-to-date hardware and Office 365. That campaigning to customers starts now and will run for the rest of the year promoting the benefits of a move. The message will change from January 2019 to contain more urgency about the looming support deadline in January 2020.

“Why is end of support so important for us? Because it is a huge opportunity to get your customers to modern. It is an opportunity estimated to be worth $100 billion when you put together all the partner services, Office and solution opportunity over three years”, she said.

The chances to pitch Windows 10 also existed across all customer sizes and segments. “If you were just to start with your customers that were on four year old plus devices the opportunities would be significant”, said Gauthier.

“If your PC and software are more than four years old then it’s time to move to a new Windows 10 device. Modern Windows devices are cheaper to manage and faster to run”, she said.

Cisco is writing a cheque for a $100 million  investment in the UK to speed up the nation’s artificial intelligence programmes

The outfit wants to create a London-based artificial intelligence (AI) research centre in partnership with University College London, which will house more than 200 researchers and academics.

Prime minister Theresa May welcomed the news, stating that it was a “vote of confidence” from Cisco in the government’s Industrial Strategy, which is a long-term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of UK workers.

“I particularly welcome the announcement of the new AI research centre in partnership with UCL”, May said.

“Research has shown that AI could add £232bn to the UK economy by 2030 and developments like this will help with our ambition to put the UK at the forefront of the AI and data revolution.”

The investment is part of Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration programme, which works in conjunction with the UK’s Industrial Strategy to address challenges in the areas of AI, digital inclusion in an aging society, increasing network capabilities on public transport and investing in digital innovation in the green sector.

Digital secretary Jeremy Wright said the UK has become a “natural destination” for large tech companies to operate in.

“Cisco’s strong commitment to the UK highlights that we have the ambition, research excellence and regulatory environment for world-leading firms to develop the innovations that will change people’s lives for the better”, he said.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said that the vendor is committed to accelerating digital growth in the UK.

“We believe that the UK’s expertise in AI and its commitment to making sure future innovators have the right digital skills will help ensure the nation’s citizens are well positioned to capture the opportunity ahead”, said Robbins.

Microsoft’s commercial VP Judson Althoff outlined a glorious five areas for partners  which he expects them to focus on in the coming Aeon.

Talking to the assembed throngs at Vole’s Inspire partner conference in Las Vegas he said there there five areas that partners should focus – culture, enterprise accounts, customer acquisition, customer retention and learning.

Althoff explained that he wants partners to mimic the atmosphere that Microsoft has developed internally. While many might think this was fear, he claimed it was one of having a growth mindset.

“You cannot bring solutions like the ones that you’ve seen and the ones I’ve talked about today… without investing in your own potential and investing in the fact that all potential can be nurtured. For us inside the company, it’s about operating as one Microsoft and being obsessed over our customers. It’s also about diversity and inclusion, and I slow down to say each of those words separately because each of them are important”, he said.

Vole wants to focus on deepening its reach into enterprise accounts by building out specialist capabilities in different industries.

This process, he said, will see Microsoft call for more bespoke solutions developed by independent software vendors and partners.

Althoff claimed that the vendor will be investing in helping partners develop their own learning capabilities.

“We’re going to invest heavily in learning and readiness because, once again, if you don’t do these things, you can’t nurture your potential”, he said.

“I’m really excited that we’ll be rolling out a brand new learning platform this year, and we’re rolling it out simultaneously internally and externally because, once again, you are an extension of everything we do.

“We’re going to revolutionise role-based learning like no company has ever done before in quick and nimble ways, across sales readiness as well as hands-on technical.”

Althoff also praised Microsoft’s wider commercial strategy, following an overhaul of the structure last year.

For those who did not know, Althoff said that Vole’s crown jewels were its One Commercial Partner Programme.

“It really enabled us over this last year to build more with you – in fact, five times as many solutions are available today versus one year ago in our commercial marketplace.  That’s all of your hard work and effort building code, investing in intellectual property, differentiated by industry to make a difference for our customers.

“We then took those solutions to market – tens of thousands of wins across these new solutions sold with you, effectively, to deliver more for our customers.

“This commercial model is resonating and it’s going to remain steadfast and be a consistent part of our strategy moving into FY19.”

UKFast has set up a cloud subsidiary to gain public cloud offerings to market to run alongside its own hybrid and private operations.

The big idea is to set up ClearCloud as a subsidiary using AWS and Azure and its own eCloud hybrid and private options.

It is being run by former AWS global architect Matt Bibby who is joining as managing director of the subsidiary with a brief to build on the growth that the firm managed to generate with its hybrid and private cloud solutions in the last year.

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said that last year the company grew 18 percent and its eCloud revenue rocketed by 43 percent of the companies overall turnover.

“By widening our offering to organisations needing multi-cloud solutions we are able to attract even more businesses to UKFast”, he said.

Jones said that while WS and Azure were public platforms that had wide distribution its high service levels would set it apart from rivals.