“We have an unprecedented opportunity,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told partners as he led off Microsoft Inspire 2017. Looking at the $4.5 trillion addressable opportunity in Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge, “unprecedented opportunity” is an understatement.
Microsoft continued with the theme of Digital Transformation at this year’s partner conference, highlighting the strategic importance of empowering employees, engaging customers, optimizing operations, and transforming products. If you aren’t doing this, your business will be left behind. To help partners and customers make this transformation, Microsoft is reorganizing their business to focus on four solution categories: Modern Workplace, Business Applications, Applications and Infrastructure, and Data & AI.
Fig | Source: Microsoft Inspire 2017 Day 1 Keynote
There was too much content packed into the three keynotes and numerous breakout sessions during the week to cover everything, but here are some of the weeks highlights:
Microsoft continues to narrow the gap in the cloud computing market through innovative offerings and a solutions-based approach.
Microsoft continues to be a leading player in the cloud computing market, but it remains behind market leader Amazon Web Services. To continue to narrow the gap and be a market leader in growth, Microsoft announced key initiatives for the cloud business:
Fig | Source: Microsoft Inspire 2017 Day 1 Keynote
- Democratizing AI: Microsoft is looking to move beyond the basics of big data and early machine learning capabilities by allowing solution providers to infuse cognitive capabilities into the applications they are building on Azure. Microsoft showcased their advanced AI capabilities with some powerful examples including Boeing, who is now able to create “digital twin” aircrafts to help with sales and maintenance (see figure above).
- Solution Focus on Key Verticals: To enable partners to better support their own customers’ Digital Transformation, Microsoft is reorganizing sales and channel management to help partners deliver solutions across six key verticals: Education, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government, Retail, and Financial Services. By focusing on the core verticals driving the $4.5 trillion dollar opportunity in Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge, Microsoft and its partners strive to capture a large percentage of the addressable market.
Microsoft introduces One Commercial Partner organization.
Under new CVP Ron Huddleston, who left Salesforce to join Microsoft in 2016, Microsoft announced a reorganization that will bring all partner-focused teams together under a single umbrella within Microsoft, One Commercial Partner. This reorg is designed to make Microsoft partner-first, rather than partner-led, emphasizing a focus on partner success and growth. Under this new alignment, the organization will focus on three key partner facing functions:
- Build-with: Microsoft will work closely with partners to build out targeted solutions across the key verticals identified above: Education, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government, and Financial Services.
- Go-To-Market: Once the solution is ready to sell, Microsoft helps bring the solution to market through different programs and campaigns, including marketing to internal Microsoft sellers.
- Sell-with: Microsoft Channel Managers will be incentivized to help connect partners with the right customers to enable sales for the customers. This includes working directly with Microsoft sales teams across customers in different industries and sizes.
Additional highlights and interesting statistics.
- Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 under Modern Workplace solutions. Microsoft 365 will bring together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility into a complete, intelligent, and secure solution to more effectively empower employees. There are two licenses for Microsoft 365, Enterprise and Business.
- Azure Stack, which was officially announced at last year’s worldwide partner conference, is code complete and will begin shipping later this year by hardware vendors.
- 69% of customers surveyed have a multi-cloud strategy, whether it is multi-public cloud or a public / private hybrid mix.1
- 70% of customers’ “next project” hosted infrastructure spend would be with bundled managed services.2
Fig | Source: Microsoft Inspire 2017 Session – Empowering Digital Transformation with Hosting and Managed Service Providers
This wraps up our highlights on Microsoft Inspire 2017. To learn more about how CloudHealth can Accelerate your Microsoft Azure CSP Business, download our case study with our partner Logicworks.
1Source: 451 Research, Voice of the Enterprise Cloud Transformation: Workloads & Key Projects 2017
2Source: 451 Research
