Top Takeaways From the Microsoft Inspire Conference 2017
August 16, 2017
(formerly World Wide Partner Conference)
Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft’s largest partner conference, was held July 9-13 in Washington, DC, and Nortec’s COO and Executive VP of Sales and Marketing George Hammerschmidt was there, and gives us his top takeaways from the event.
“It was very clear that Microsoft is going for an all-out push on digital transformation, cloud infrastructure, SaaS and AI,” said Hammerschmidt.
Indeed, Microsoft is again doubling down on the cloud – and they’re winning, with Azure taking market share from Google and Amazon. “This success is great for users because Microsoft will continue to improve and enhance Azure with even more functionality and services,” said Hammerschmidt.
Microsoft unveiled a new offering Microsoft 365 at Inspire that brings together Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility and Security. There are two versions – Microsoft365 Enterprise for large organizations and Microsoft 365 Business for small and mid-sized businesses. “So instead of having to buy three separate solutions, customers can get everything they need for the modern workplace and empower employees in the Digital Transformation era,” said Hammerschmidt. “It’s cheaper, easier, and makes licensing much simpler as well.”
“We’re excited and ready to help customers leverage the developments coming out of Inspire,” said Hammerschmidt. Nortec offers customers expertise throughout the entire cloud continuum – from secure managed endpoints and email, to secure managed servers and cloud data centers. The entire stack is covered.
As an example Nortec incorporates multiple services for secure managed endpoints, such as multifactor authentication, OneDrive and and Skykick backup for email. Similarly Microsoft’s Operations Management Suite services enhance Nortec’s secure managed server offerings, which can be scaled to support the entire managed cloud datacenter – from networking, PaaS, to recovery and backup. “We’re able to scale pricing by user count, as well as offer solutions that are tailored to each organization’s specific needs,” said Hammerschmidt.
“There were key points of focus at Inspire that really resonated with us at Nortec, because we share that focus: modern workplaces that improve employee empowerment, business applications and infrastructure that optimize operations, and new ways to leverage data and AI,” said Hammerschmidt. “We look forward to delivering on these key pillars for our customers to help make them more successful.”
