Posts by NJobs 12 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jul 2014
Why allow Microsoft to control and dictate your company's software spend upwards towards the Cloud?
European companies can continue to buy (not rent) pre-owned / second-hand perpetual MS software at heavily discounted prices.
Visit: www.discount-licensing.com to see how much savings your company can make on pre-owned perpetual MS software.
At first glance, it does look here as if Microsoft has behaved in an anti-competitive manner but given the fact that ValueLicensing is one of the smallest players within the European second-hand software market, with a sales turnover of less than £5m pa, how an earth does VL justify that it has lost £270 million GP?
"If you have fewer than 250 users or devices, you'll be 'TOLD TO CONSIDER' the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program...". Well there's a surprise - after years of failing to flog the Cloud to the levels boasted in the media, Microsoft now resorts to patronising the 'small' businesses with an oxymoron...this is not a dictatorship guys - there's no one size fits all in software.
MS continues with its false Cloud marketing campaign. Back in 2014, it was reported that MS's Commercial Cloud business accounted for only 5.6% of its total Commercial (perpetual software licensing accounted for the majority of the remaining $45bn spend (see report below). Nothing has changed apart from the way it accounts for things.
http://www.discount-licensing.com/files/Commercial%20Cloud%20Dwarfed%20by%20Perpetual%20Software%20Licence%20Spend%20(Jan%2015).pdf
Very true - reading its financial accounts, Microsoft's Commercial Cloud only accounted for 5% of its total $50bn Commercial software sales (Perpetual Volume, Subscription, Cloud etc) but still we get overloaded with the 'Cloud' hype. There's no 'one size fits all' in the world of software, contrary to what Microsoft would like us all to believe...
Commercial ‘Cloud’ is still massively dwarfed by ‘Perpetual / on-Premises’ Software spend - you can read the statistics in the following LinkedIn Post or follow the next link for a PDF version...'Cloud' is clearly on the increase but there's no 'one size fits all' in the world of software.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/commercial-cloud-dwarfed-perpetual-software-licence-spend-noel-unwin?trk=prof-post
http://www.discount-licensing.com/files/Commercial%20Cloud%20Dwarfed%20by%20Perpetual%20Software%20Licence%20Spend%20(Jan%2015).pdf
So after 3 years, no real changes in the pipeline for Office 2016. Why would any IT department want to waste its time and IT budget migrating to Office 2016 when it can stay on or migrate to a cheaper / similar product such as Office 2010 or 2013 (both supported until 2020 / 2023 respectively).
The 'Cloud First Policy' is a poor one, championed and implemented by ignorant government officials. Microsoft have done a remarkable job in lobbying weak politicians but in reality, the Cloud does not save the tax payer money for Microsoft's Office 365 product. Perpetual Office 2013 is still significantly more cost effective - read the following LinkedIn post, which cuts out the Microsoft Cloud hype - its commercially oriented but the same principles apply to Public sector Cloud v Perpetual software:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208155652-26771970-microsoft-office-2013-v-office-365?trk=prof-post
I do agree with most of the comments posted here but you are very wrong when you say that:
"Everybody, almost Everybody is buying into Office 365".
I have worked in the software industry for over a decade alongside Small, Medium and Enterprise organisations. I have been bombarded with the Cloud hype and the fact is that businesses have been very slow to adopt the Cloud Office 365 over the past 5 years (the stats published to date prove it); hence the reason why MS is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at businesses to take it up. The 'Cloud' clearly has its place but the reality we are seeing an extension of the MS 'Subscription' & 'SA' hype that we saw 10 years ago. In reality, businesses are not taking up the Cloudy Offering and based on the past 5 years, you will not see a massive leap from on-premise to Cloud; more a re-balancing of Cloud v on-premise over unforeseeable future...
The only people predicting a rapid take up of the Cloud over the next 2 years are the vendors whom want to give you the impression that Cloud is taking over the world - the truth is quite the opposite. The only winners with for instance Microsoft's Cloud products remain the vendor and the partners / resellers receiving greater incentives. Most businesses (small, medium and large) face increased costs with Cloud over the period of contractual period (compared to perpetual volume) and I would be amazed if Microsoft achieved even 20% Cloud revenue by 2016 given how slow Enterprise customers have been in taking up Office 365 and Azure to date. And you cannot blame businesses for being sceptical - outages and increased costs are just a couple of issues to grapple with - would you want the NSA spying on your company's data?
The only winners with Microsoft's Cloud products remain the vendor and the partners / resellers whom are being offered gifts and incentives to drive Microsoft's desperation to move on-premise perpetual volume customers to the Cloud subscription option.
Most businesses (small, medium and large) still face increased costs over the period of product usage (compared to perpetual volume) as most businesses do not migrate every 3 years (more like every 6) so do not be fooled by the relentless Microsoft hype. The fact is that Enterprise customers have been very resistant to taking up Office 365 to date and this is why Microsoft is now attacking the small-mid sized market.
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