cloud news
Wade Tyler Millward
Interlink, Core BTS, LAN Infotech, Guardian Computer, and Ensono join Microsoft for a tough week.
Partners told CRN that even as Microsoft’s growth slows for their own businesses, they will get more out of their customers by offering more Microsoft products and services in security, data analytics, and migrating legacy applications to the cloud. He said he believes it has the potential to bring in a lot of revenue.
Microsoft’s first round of 10,000 layoffs took place Wednesday, with employees in the fields of marketing, advertising, recruiting, gaming and mixed reality publicly announcing their retirement from the tech giant.
Some investment firms have released positive reports that the US is doing well in the long term, even though it appears headed for recession due to rising inflation and interest rates. Other companies say Microsoft’s growth period has reached a slowdown.
[RELATED: Microsoft Layoffs Ahead Of Q2 Earnings: 5 Things To Know]
Are Microsoft partners slowing down?
Mike Wilson, chief technology officer at Microsoft partner Interlink Cloud Advisors, based in Mason, Ohio, said in an interview with CRN that the company, which has 52 employees, will be on track to grow between 2022 and 2023. He said he expects “substantial growth” but did not disclose exact numbers.
Security remains a key growth area for Interlink, Wilson said. His company has been committed to moving customers beyond the tools they get through Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security platform.
“Customers are coming closer to the idea that Microsoft is the number one security company in the world,” Wilson said. “We are seeing people start to think seriously about how they handle threat protection, and Defender XDR (enhanced detection and response) is making waves. The message that a set of integrated tools are all better individually, but better than the sum of them together, really works.”
Beyond security, Interlink has invested in great features around Microsoft SharePoint to give Teams users more collaboration options, build a Power Platform business, bring more developers to low-code tools, and bring more of business process automation.
Wilson said he was sad to hear about Microsoft’s 10,000 layoffs, but his company is waiting for an opportunity to hire top talent.
“I certainly feel sorry for the people making the transition and the disruption that comes with it, but based on Microsoft’s actions, I don’t see any impact on our business,” he said. rice field.
Michael Goldstein, CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Microsoft partner LAN Infotech, said in an interview with CRN that while customers are still investing in cloud growth, they are “more cost-conscious than they used to be.” He said he is maintaining rather than increasing Azure consumption rates. .
Instead, security is a growth area he’s investing in, and February and March are periods of high breach attempts, he said. A member of CRN’s 2022 Managed Service Provider 500, he LAN Infotech even plans to roll out a security review for its customers.
“We’re seeing huge growth on the security front,” he said. “We’re really excited about the Defender suite and the ratings it’s gotten. Things will come, and people will look at that integration phase. “So, Mike, do we need four vendors? Or will they all come from Microsoft?”
Goldstein is also still excited about the addition of Teams functionality and how Microsoft will promote Mesh as part of its workplace tools.
Jean Prejean, president of Microsoft partner Guardian Computer based in Metairie, Louisiana, told CRN in an interview that her 11-employee business has invested in expanding its capabilities around Azure and hybrid cloud environments. He said he was.
Guardian, a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500, is still busy helping clients delve into its Office 365 suite and upgrade some customers to E3 licenses, but due to economic Prejean said he expects growth to be relatively flat in 2023 compared to 2023.
“We had a lot of growth in 2021-22,” says Prejean. “But the forecast for 2023 is pretty flat. We hired three people in 2022. If we were to hire anyone, it would be at the end of the year. We don’t anticipate , but it will be a flat year.”
Gordon McKenna, chief technology officer for public cloud at Ensono, a Microsoft partner with more than 3,000 employees based in Downers Grove, Ill., hopes to double the company’s Microsoft business. says there is.
Ensono – #97 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – is committed to mainframe modernization services from Microsoft to help customers migrate workloads to the cloud and modernize legacy applications. He also wants to step up his strategy with Microsoft and his fellow hyperscalers his Amazon Web Services and Google and become more than a co-selling partner.
Even non-technical companies looking to move to the cloud using in-house employees and resources will learn that outsourcing is the best way to handle complex IT projects, he said. I was.
“Where does all the growth in our business come from? It’s from the clouds,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a client today that doesn’t have a cloud strategy, unlike a few years ago. I think it’s an improvement in the speed of
McKenna is also looking at ways to use his largest vendor partner’s marketplace. Microsoft has been telling partners that the company’s marketplace could be a way to sell to customers who are mindful of new spending, but customers are already making large purchases for discounts. Has his Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).
For partners, trading through the marketplace will also speed up the procurement process, he said.
“A lot of our customers have big contracts,” says McKenna. “I was talking to a very large financial customer the other day, and I think they committed close to $2 billion in MACC with Microsoft. The bill is one, so instead of partnering with Microsoft to pay for Azure and then partnering with us to pay for services, what they can do is through the marketplace It’s a purchase of a Marketplace item, which will appear on your Azure bill.”
Tony Guidi – 745 employees, senior vice president of Microsoft Alliance at Indianapolis-based partner Core BTS – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella comments, don’t just spend more with vendors, optimize your spending He said it was about a customer who said it was consistent with his attitude. look.
During the pandemic boom, Guidi said core BTS customers (ranked 161st on CRN’s 2022 SP 500) have taken over and are looking to maximize spending on subscriptions and consumption.
“On some projects, you will see clients who are somewhat stuck, kicking the can a little bit and being shaken just to see where things are going financially,” he said. “But at the end of the day, businesses have to be competitive. .”
Still, I’m not worried about the negative growth of the core BTS Microsoft practice. Core BTS has seen a lot of demand for application innovation, data analytics capabilities in Azure, and endpoint security.
“We are seeing growth in our business on all fronts,” he said. “Are we growing at the level we wanted… No. But there is still growth there.”
Microsoft Layoffs More Posts on LinkedIn
Meanwhile, more of the 10,000 laid-off employees took to LinkedIn, a social media network owned by Microsoft, to post about being laid off by the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant since Wednesday. doing.
Employees come from Mcirosoft’s Gaming Division, Mixed Reality, Customer Success, Sales and Support, and Microsoft Advertising.
Some of those employees are:
Business Program Manager with 15+ years at Microsoft
Two sisters, one a senior program manager at Xbox Game Studios Publishing and the other a Halo franchise producer at Microsoft subsidiary 343 Industries
A 25-year veteran of Microsoft, most recently served as Principal Program Manager for Services Hub, Microsoft’s digital delivery platform for enterprise support customers.
Less than a year as Director of Retail and Consumer Goods Consulting Services at Microsoft
Employees of Microsoft’s FastTrack team who provided consulting and business value advice related to Teams
Cloud Solution Architect
Mixed Reality Product Manager and Producer at Microsoft who worked on Mesh and Microsoft’s AltspaceVR platform
Senior Customer Success Account Manager
7+ years Customer Training Associate at Microsoft
Worked as Microsoft Direct Sales and Support Manager for about 9 years
Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Start Experience who has worked at the company for almost 16 years
For nearly 17 years, he was the senior services engineering manager for the company’s Microsoft Advertising Publisher Display and Native Policy Enforcement team (AdsHelp).
Wade Tyler Millward
