Newsletter Archives

• You’ll be amazed to learn how Microsoft really makes dough

  Posted on July 1, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  If you think the sale of Windows software is Microsoft’s primary source of revenue, you’re in for a big surprise when you see the way the Redmond corporate giant actually earns money.

  As of the fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2024, more than 56% of the company’s revenue — easily a majority — is generated by Microsoft’s cloud services, including Azure Server, Office cloud services, and other online income streams.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.27.0, 2024-07-01).

  Public Defender Azure, Cloud computing, Financial Performance, Gaming, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Newsletters, Office, Windows

• Is your next PC a cloud?

  Posted on July 15, 2021 at 01:06 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Alex in the forum posts about Microsoft’s latest announcements about their “Windows 365” product.

  (yes yet another groaner of a name from Redmond, let’s not confuse it with Microsoft 365 that is merely the suite of Office apps, Windows 365 is a hosted desktop running Windows that includes Microsoft 365 apps)

  This week is Microsoft’s partner event called Inspire and they often make announcements and product releases.  Mind you in this era of cloud nothing is really “RTM” or in the old days “release to manufacturer and thus code complete, now days it’s called public or private previews and then later on general availability.

  Windows 365 is a hosted desktop that you can log into from anywhere/anything … sort of like Remote desktop protocol/RDGatewaying into your desktop at home or the office. It remains to be seen if this is offered to consumers. It will be interesting to see how this patches up on a monthly basis. Similar to Surface machines where in theory this should be the BESTEST/MOSTEST/FANTASTIC patching experience EVER, we shall see how well this goes. These machines should have ZERO patching issues.  None.  Zilch. In theory at least.

  Other announcements impacting small businesses – or rather the Managed service providers that support small businesses – Microsoft Lighthouse.  A remote tool for a partner to manage many clients.  Yes, right now attackers are sooooooo going after the consultants that manage lots of businesses because it’s easy picking. Just the other day the remote management company Kaseya had their product used as a means to launch ransomware against consultant’s customer base.

  Another tool is called Project “Orland” and is touted as “…. is a new experience in Partner Center to help cloud solution provider (CSP) partners grow their cloud businesses by sharing Microsoft-powered insights about their customers to improve account management. CSP partners will get recommendations from their existing customer base such as customers with trial conversion potential, customers who may need follow-up engagements or customers ready for new workloads to deploy.”  I raised my eyebrow a bit on that description. Okay Mr. or Ms. Consultant, you are explaining to your customer that you are spying on them, yes? It will be interesting to read that eula.

   

  Windows News Cloud computing, Patch Lady Posts

• Before moving to the cloud, check the foundation

  Posted on January 13, 2020 at 01:05 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  CLOUD SERVICES

  By Amy Babinchak

  For small businesses, migrating to cloud-based services will impose some significant changes in how local computing gets done.

  But there are also some principles that never change. The cloud might alleviate some information technology (IT) issues, but the basics of good networking practices remain — and they still need to be understood and adhered to.

  Before any sort of tech migration, establishing a solid IT foundation is essential; this process includes both IT professionals and the technology infrastructure.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.2.0 (2020-01-13).

  Cloud Services AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cabling, Cloud computing, Internet connectivity, Updating