Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Microsoft splits channel chief role
Microsoft announced on July 14 that it will split the company’s ‘channel chief’ role in two. Former chief Rodney Clark, who announced his departure from the company in May, will be replaced with two current Microsoft execs in separate roles, one of which will be directly tied to sales with channel partners and led by David Smith, new vice president channel sales; and the other led by Julie Sanford, vice president go-to-market, programs and experiences, with direct accountability for programs and offerings. Nicole Dezen will be chief partner officer (CPO) and corporate vice president of global partner solutions, responsible for the commercial partner business and a global team building and selling Microsoft Cloud applications, replacing Nick Parker, who was promoted to president of the Industry & Partner Sales (IPS) organization.
Windows Autopatch service now generally available
This week Microsoft released its new Autopatch service to customers with Windows Enterprise E3 and E5 licenses. Announced in April, Windows Autopatch automates updating of Windows 10/11, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365 software. Essentially, Microsoft engineers use the Windows Update for Business client policies and deployment service tools on the customer’s behalf. The service creates testing rings and monitors rollouts, pausing and even rolling back changes where possible.
Microsoft FastTrack Specialists are also available to help customers with more than 150 eligible licenses work through the Windows Autopatch technical prerequisites described in the documentation.
Verint launches new partner program
Customer engagement company Verint has announced its newly designed partner program, which it says provides new collaborative tools and program elements to make it easier and faster for partners to accelerate growth, expand portfolios and differentiate in the market. The program includes new, personalized workshops to ensure partners have everything needed to go to market; these offer a clear engagement framework of how to sell, service, support and extend the Verint Cloud Platform, as well as providing supporting tools.
The company says the new program elements are easily accessed through Verint’s online partner community, within the newly designed Verint Partner Corner on Verint Connect. Verint Connect also hosts the Verint Developer Portal, providing access to cross-product Verint APIs with consistent security patterns, documentation, and interfaces.
SQL Server 2012 reaches end of support
This week, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 reached its official end of support, and the company published a blog detailing choices for customers who can’t immediately move off it. These include moving the instance to an Azure Virtual Machine, gaining up to three years of extended security updates in the process, modernizing in the cloud with Azure SQL Managed Instance, and signing up for extended security updates on-premises via Azure Arc. However, its preferred option is an upgrade to a supported version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2019.
Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending to grow 3 per cent in 2022
Worldwide IT spending is projected to total US$4.5 trillion in 2022, an increase of three per cent from 2021, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. While IT spending is expected to grow in 2022, it will be at a much slower pace than 2021 due to consumer spending cutbacks on PCs, tablets and printers, causing spending on devices to shrink by five per cent.
Gartner says that price increases and delivery uncertainty, exacerbated by global events, have accelerated the transition in purchasing preference among chief information officers, and enterprises in general, from ownership to service — pushing cloud spending to 18.4 per cent growth in 2021 and expected growth of 22.1 per cent in 2022. Cloud service demand is reshaping the IT services industry, and is also driving spending on servers to 16.6 per cent growth in 2022, as hyperscalers build out their data centers. Spending on data center systems is forecast to experience the strongest growth of all segments in 2022 at 11.1 per cent. Cloud consulting and implementation and cloud-managed services are expected to grow 17.2 per cent in 2022, from US$217 billion in 2021 to US$255 billion in 2022, helping to drive the overall IT services segment to 6.2 per cent growth in 2022
Intel to raise chip prices in October
Multiple reports have alleged that Intel has informed customers it will raise prices on a majority of its microprocessors and peripheral chip products later this year, citing rising costs. It plans to raise prices this autumn on flagship products such as central processing units for servers and computers, where it dominates the market, as well as on a wide range of other items, including chips for Wi-Fi and other connectivity. Intel says the price hikes are required because of the surging costs for production and materials. The percentage increases have not been finalized, and could be different for different types of chips, but are likely to range from a minimal single-digit increase to more than 10 to 20 per cent in some cases, according to sources.
