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back to article Microsoft: We have a bullet ready for 12 competencies

Microsoft is to take 12 "old world" accreditations out back to be shot as it drags channel partners – some of them kicking and screaming – into the cloud. Gavriella Schuster, GM of Microsoft’s worldwide partner group, said it will “streamline” certifications and funnel investment on “building successful cloud practices”. “ …

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  1. Erik4872

    Not surprising

    These aren't technical certifications per se, they're sales and marketing competencies. As in, this partner has been fed enough sales content and has enough experience to effectively sell Technology X. I think they're just not bothering to continue actively supporting non-Azure deployments of various technologies. After all, if a technology is available in Azure as a purchasable service, there's no reason for Microsoft to help channel partners sell it when they can collect the money directly.

    The next few years are going to be interesting for Microsoft. It's very obvious that they're done selling one off software licenses by default. They definitely prefer the lock-in of permanent revenue streams renting capacity in Azure. Some companies will never fully migrate to the cloud, but the resistance is getting less and less each year. That's going to mean interesting times for hardware vendors as well, who will end up mostly selling to cloud providers.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not surprising

      I don't think many businesses are really moving to the cloud. What they are doing is putting something small there so they can use the cloud buzzword but they're not planning a wholesale move. Others are just redefining what the word cloud means so that their existing data-centres become clouds....

      9 1 Reply
      1. a_yank_lurker
        Reply Icon

        Re: Not surprising

        The cloud is mostly marketing hype. From a technical view, the cloud has some serious implications about data security. Depending on the industry, the cloud may a legal no go because of privacy laws.

        4 0 Reply
        1. azaks
          Reply Icon

          Re: Not surprising

          >> The cloud is mostly marketing hype

          Seriously?

          Back in the day when people kept their money under the mattress, I am sure there were many predicting that something as stupid as giving it to a bank to mind for you would never catch on.

          If you think companies like paying good money for geeks to implement on-prem that which can be purchased as a subscription, you are deluded. Of course there are risks (just as there is in putting money in the bank), but the rate at which big companies with big IT budgets are getting popped, putting your money under the mattress isn't looking like the safest thing to do either.

          The move to cloud wont be linear or without hiccups, but it is inevitable. Sticking with an on-prem focus would be a slow road to obsolescence...

          1 2 Reply
          1. seaspray
            Reply Icon

            Silos fails in a sudden moment

            Not only here in Italy, people are very sorry of having put their money into banks, after all mattress is a better sleep than the nightmere of havig the bank fail with them without any chance to interfere.. The anatem goes, little, damned and now, as far as money go. Regarding the software of course it is only the intrest of the seller to avoid lock in as @M$ with Xp Win over sVista's, 8, 8.1 , 10 --Wow -- in ginecology the more miscarriage you have the more you are prone to failure. Maybe the future will be cloudy, let's hope it wont rain too much and that the thunderstorm wont bring floodings and hurrycane because it's clear that the clients trade trust, control and money to confort, privacy, and knowledge.

            0 0 Reply
      2. NJobs
        Reply Icon

        Re: Not surprising

        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...

        1 0 Reply
  2. tirk
    Facepalm

    "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

    The Reality Distortion Generator they got from Apple seems to be working well. If only they had turned it so it was facing the customers, not the staff!

    22 0 Reply
    1. hplasm
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

      "It's unprecedented for the demand for anything to be so low!"

      8 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

        So someone seriously answer this... MS and third parties say 10 is the fastest Windows adoption ever, which makes sense given that it is free this time. What am I missing that apparently people on Reg are getting with all of the low adoption comments? I have Win10. It is solid, way better than Win8.

        0 7 Reply
        1. Mark 85
          Reply Icon

          Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

          You're missing the monetization that will be forthcoming either in fees or ads or both. Also all the tracking under the guise of telemetry. How about pushing a product out to every home user that unfinished? Driver fails, for example.

          Disclaimer.. I've fiddled with it, and for what I use a computer for, it's unfit for purpose due to driver issues and program compatibility issues.

          2 1 Reply
    2. x 7
      Reply Icon

      Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

      is that unprecedented LACK of demand for Win10?

      7 2 Reply
    3. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

      Well, after pushing the latest and greatest Office and now pushing Win10 on users, yeah.. there's a demand but it's a forced demand. Most users are clueless and follow the instructions to open an MS account and "activate cloud storage". I'm now getting bugged by some friend/relatives about how to get their stuff back on their computer instead of out there on that vague "cloud".

      And then there's the pitch about the "cloud". Early on it was multiple locations across providers such that if one went down, you could access your data. Meh... we've all seen how that works out. The MS cloud breaks or the Google cloud breaks and you're up a creek until it's fixed. <$Deity> help you if one decides to close down that service and you have suddenly migrate all your data, etc. somewhere else.

      The company I worked for when I retired did it right, IMO. They had 2 data centers that basically mirrored each other. If one went down, the other took up the load. And it was costing them less than MS, Google, or Amazon would have charged.

      6 0 Reply
    4. Sebastian A
      Reply Icon

      Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

      Since they're countil Xbox ones as an installed Windows 10, you can take whatever number they're claiming and deduct about 19-20m from that.

      Then work out how many of the copies they're counting have been supplied to manufacturers as a license but never installed (downgrade rights, unsold equipment etc) and numbers will start to look more like actual rather than marketing hyperbole.

      2 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Saddened but not surprised

    I was annoyed to say the least that all my previous exams and 1/2 way through revising for the next now won't count towards anything. This is a move to sell as much as you can, partnership was always showing you had the technical knowledge to implement and support Microsoft.

    Also, sounds like they are doing what Google are in the middle of and getting rid of all their small partners.

    3 1 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Microsoft will streamline certifications.

    Reminds me of the $ientologists and their endless 'tech' study courses and unobtainable certs to clearness, as the old certs were discovered to be invalid and you have to take them all over again.

    ref: CRM, devices and deployment, digital advertising, distributor, hosting, identity and access, intelligent systems, learning, mid market solution provider, OEM, software asset management and volume licensing.

    1 0 Reply
  5. arctic_haze

    Trust broken beyond repair

    Just in case I've hidden a Windows 7 patch allegedly changing time zones in some obscure parts of Russia. It has no relevance for me and there is always chance it will try to push Windows 10 up my virtual hole just because it can.

    3 0 Reply
  6. anniemouse

    microsoft still peddling their bag of tricks

    When the aliens land, they will look thru microsoft code and patents for their entertainment. Meanwhile earthlings are getting the real trojan under the guise of a window which carries the backdoor the spy guys really want installed.

    microsoft. don't trust'm. don't like'm.

    2 1 Reply
  7. Monopolies-Suck

    This is, to me, a bit daft. Microsoft Learning, the folks behind the exams, are not able to keep the exams or the courses up to date. So how can today's exam be relevant in the market. Someone who passes an Exam today will find they are out of date almost as soon as the ink is dry - Azure is moving too fast.

    This is all predictable, and sad. It will mean Partners, etc being forced to take meaningless exams, it will mean more brain dumps and it will ultimately be irrelevant. If I was hiring a partner, I'd want relevant experience - exam passes are meaningless. I'd want the partner to have current experience, not to have passed an exams...

    0 0 Reply

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