Karthik Narain, group CEO and CTO, Accenture called Microsoft a ‘trusted partner.

Karthik’s words:

“Congratulations to Microsoft on this incredible milestone. Accenture is proud to have been a trusted partner on this journey—with more than three decades of joint investment and co-development focused on bringing Microsoft’s transformative technology to organizations across the world. Alongside our joint venture Avanade, we help our clients innovate and reinvent their businesses with Microsoft technology. As the world enters the intelligence era, we believe that deep strategic partnerships like ours are a competitive differentiator and together, we can help accelerate value for every enterprise, government and citizen for the next 50 years and beyond.”

Jerry Kao, COO of Acer Inc. said: “Acer has partnered with Microsoft for four decades, witnessing how their constant innovation has been instrumental to the development of computing technology. From PCs leading to the digital era, and now cloud and artificial intelligence driving transformation all around us, we’re excited to continue working together to create impactful solutions that drive change.”

Shantanu Narayen, the chair and CEO of Adobe wrote:

“Congratulations to Microsoft on your 50th anniversary! This milestone is a testament to your tremendous innovation and impact. Adobe is proud to partner with Microsoft to deliver transformative digital experiences and we’re excited to keep pushing the boundaries of what technology and AI can help deliver for billions of people around the world.”

Also, Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO AMD sent congratulatory message to Microsoft: “Congratulations to Satya Nadella and the entire Microsoft team for an amazing 50 years of innovation! Microsoft is truly a pioneer in the industry and AMD is honored to be your partner. I’m incredibly proud of our collaboration and joint work together over the years—from driving the industry standard for personal computing with Windows, to powering the most important Azure cloud services used by so many every day with AMD EPYC and Instinct, to reaching billions of gamers with Xbox. I look forward to all we will do together over the coming years! Together, we’re shaping the future of AI and the next generation of computing.”

S.Y. Hsu and Samson Hu, Co-CEO of ASUS:

“We are honored and proud to have built a solid, long-term partnership with Microsoft for over 30 years, a company that remains at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, and that has helped ASUS achieve its AI integration goals. We look forward to many more successful years of future collaboration.”

Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and chief operating officer, Dell Technologies also felicitates with the partner: “For more than four decades, Dell’s partnership with Microsoft has driven breakthrough innovations that transform industries, empower customers and improve lives around the world. Together, we’ve redefined possibilities, from personal computing to the AI-driven technologies shaping our future, and we look forward to what lies ahead.”

Jim Johnson, senior vice president, Client Computing Group, Intel:

“For decades, Intel’s partnership with Microsoft has sparked innovation and delivered value to our customers. Together, we’ve revolutionized industries and established new benchmarks for excellence. We look forward to collaborating for the next 50 years—and beyond.”

Carl Carande, global head of Advisory at KPMG International and Vice Chair of Advisory at KPMG in the US: “Our long-standing strategic alliance with Microsoft continues to drive transformative digital innovation, enabling us to deliver greater value to clients and accelerate business outcomes. We are committed to working together with Microsoft to help organizations harness AI and emerging technologies to navigate complexity, unlock new opportunities, and lead with confidence in the intelligent age. We continue to advance our 360-degree relationship, working with Microsoft to lead the future of innovation for our own operations, for Microsoft and for clients.”

Yuanqing Yang, CEO and chairman, Lenovo:

“Having worked alongside every CEO of Microsoft in my career, I would like to personally congratulate Microsoft for its 50 extraordinary years of driving relentless innovation. From PC to mobile, and now onto the AI era, Lenovo and Microsoft have partnered in bringing personal computing to every household, enhancing enterprise productivity with Microsoft Office, and most recently in powering more personalized, productive, and protected Lenovo AI PCs with Copilot+ experiences, delivering cloud- based services and AI-driven IT solutions, enabling scalable infrastructure for the new AI era, and working towards a vision of personal AI twins and enterprise AI twins. Lenovo is proud to be a major part of this amazing journey with Microsoft and we are committed to this partnership for many more decades to come.”

Jeff Fisher, senior vice president for GeForce at NVIDIA: “Microsoft’s contribution to advancing computing over the past 50 years is worth celebrating. The NVIDIA and Microsoft partnership will continue to deliver the next era of accelerated computing and AI, from GeForce gaming to RTX AI PCs.”

Stephanie Mosticchio, principal, US and Global Microsoft Alliance Leader, PwC:

“As a proud Microsoft alum, I’ve seen firsthand how our collaboration has evolved to drive meaningful change for businesses across industries. From strategy through engineering and implementation, PwC and Microsoft drive innovation and deliver real business outcomes for clients worldwide.”

Matt Hicks, president and CEO Red Hat: “Red Hat and Microsoft have a long history of driving customer success together, from the datacenter to the cloud, out to the edge, and now, into the AI era. We continue to bring together Red Hat’s open-source expertise with Microsoft’s leading cloud capabilities to meet our customers wherever they are in their IT roadmap.”

Jay Kim, executive vice president and head of Customer Experience Office, Samsung:

“Partnering with Microsoft has allowed us to leverage cutting-edge technology, set new standards for excellence, and deliver value to our customers. Our collaboration has driven innovation, delivering the most premium PC experience in the industry with the Galaxy Book series, and seamlessly integrating Galaxy smartphone and PC capabilities to create an experience that truly resonates with our customers.”

Christian Klein, CEO, SAP: “Many congratulations to the entire Microsoft team on this milestone anniversary! For 50 years, you have been at the forefront of technology and our longstanding partnership is a testament to our two companies’ shared commitment to innovation and transformation. Together, we have driven significant advancements in key areas from cloud computing to AI, always enabling our customers to stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital landscape. We’re excited about the many ways Microsoft and SAP will continue to push the boundaries and look forward to the next chapter in your incredible success story.”

Frederic Godemel, executive vice president, Energy Management, Schneider Electric:

“Schneider Electric and Microsoft have been driven by a shared vision of world that is more electric and digital. We’re thrilled to celebrate Microsoft’s 50th anniversary and excited to continue pioneering innovative solutions together, harnessing the transformative power of AI, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for our customers and shaping a sustainable future for generations to come.”

Erica Volini, executive vice president of Worldwide Industries, Partners, and Go-to-market at ServiceNow: “50 years is an enormous milestone, and it’s our honor to celebrate Microsoft as both a customer and partner on their journey. Their history of innovation has been instrumental in shaping the future of technology and is why ServiceNow values our partnership so deeply. Together we will keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and transforming how business gets done. Here’s to another 50 years!”

Tyler Prince, senior vice president, Worldwide Alliances and Channels, Snowflake:

“As someone who has led global partnerships at several of the world’s leading technology companies, I am impressed by how Microsoft has leaned in with their partner ecosystem and taken a leadership position in cloud computing and AI. We, at Snowflake, are excited to continue to strengthen our partnership in the years to come, and we look forward to jointly driving customer success in the age of enterprise AI. Congratulations Microsoft and thank you for your leadership and innovation.”

Krishna Mohan, head of Cloud Business Group, TCS: “In the past five decades, Microsoft has consistently pushed the boundaries of technology, transforming the way we live, work, and connect. Microsoft’s role in democratizing technology innovation at scale has empowered organizations worldwide to streamline operations and enhance productivity.

This relentless pursuit of excellence and commitment to groundbreaking solutions is common to both our organizations, especially as we deliver sustainable innovations that underscore our shared dedication to creating a better future for generations to come. Congratulations to Microsoft on reaching 50 years of innovation.”

Kedar Kondap, senior vice president and general manager, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.:

“Qualcomm is proud of our collaboration with Microsoft, from which we have delivered world-changing technology to market over the years. We share a commitment to delivering innovative solutions, and could not be more excited for what’s to come.”

50 hearty cheers to Microsoft!

 The availability of cloud credits for third-party purchases through the hyperscalers’ marketplaces and the emergence of new digital-first buyers are reshaping enterprise customer procurement behavior, vendor sales strategies and channel models.

While most vendor sales via these marketplaces are today “direct” to end customers, channel partners are playing an increasingly important role. By 2027, Canalys expects more than 50% of marketplace sales to flow through the channel.

This trend is explored in a new Canalys research report: Now and next for hyperscaler marketplaces.

Enterprise customers have committed to spend over US$360 billion on the top three hyperscalers’ cloud services on a multi-year basis.

Spend is shifting to the hyperscalers’ marketplaces as customers seek to burn down a portion of their cloud credits on third-party software and SaaS.

AWS Marketplace remains the clear leader in terms of sales volume, but Microsoft and Google Cloud are focused on closing the gap.

With enterprises facing IT budget pressure, the opportunity to use pre-approved cloud budgets to source a wide array of software and cybersecurity products while taking advantage of simplified billing and consolidated purchasing can be highly compelling.

This is tempting vendors from across the technology spectrum to sell through the hyperscalers’ marketplaces. CrowdStrike and Snowflake were among the first to publicly claim US$1 billion of total cumulative sales through marketplaces, and a host of the largest software and cybersecurity vendors are actively embracing this route to market.

Cisco, Citrix, IBM, NetApp, Nutanix, Red Hat, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Zoom are just some of the vendors that have launched or grown their sales on the hyperscalers’ marketplaces so far in 2024.

At the same time, many smaller “digital native” ISVs built on one of the three top hyperscalers’ cloud platforms are using their respective marketplaces as their primary routes to market.

The hyperscalers meanwhile are funneling substantial investments into marketplace co-sell resources, demand generation, sales incentives and channel programs (along with cuts to marketplace fees) to attract vendors to their cloud platforms.

The channel is becoming a focal point in the battle between the hyperscalers as vendors prioritize partner-first marketplace strategies.

Through models such as AWS’ Channel Partner Private Offers, Microsoft’s Multiparty Private Offers and Google Cloud’s newly launched Marketplace Channel Private Offers, vendors can enable their partners to create customized offers for their customers on the hyperscalers’ marketplaces while seeking to maintain margins for the channel.

“The channel has concerns about the rise of marketplaces, but both hyperscalers and vendors acknowledge the vital role of channel partners in driving customer adoption and growth,” said Alastair Edwards, chief analyst at Canalys. “Customers often prefer buying through trusted partners for help with managing cloud commitments and accessing professional services and technical expertise when sourcing complex technologies from multiple marketplaces.”

IT distributors are facing increasing competition from hyperscaler marketplaces that are themselves acting as digital distribution platforms.

Yet distributors will be important to reduce operational challenges for partners and vendors as adoption grows globally and to support the growing number of second-tier partners whose customers want to buy this way.

Canalys expects the development and expansion of new programs, such as AWS DSOR, to support greater distributor involvement.

Channel partners are vital to ensure customers can access the technologies they need, regardless of their buying preferences.

“A seamless buying experience is essential, and success will depend on greater API-led integration between hyperscalers, distributors and partner platforms,” said Edwards.

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BT this week announced a new era in its partnership with ServiceNow, the leading digital workflow company that makes the world work better for everyone, with plans to launch a turnkey, contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) package integrating digital workflows, global communications and a cloud-hosted contact centre platform.

It is being developed in response to demand from customers to simplify and accelerate digitalisation of their contact centres and workflows.

Digitalisation, including the move of contact centre systems into the cloud, offers more flexible and responsive user experiences for both customers and agents.

It also helps reduce costs, boost productivity and enables new service innovations and compliance tools. 

It will be delivered and managed by BT and ServiceNow to help customers create fully digital, comms-enabled workflows without having to engage multiple partners.

It combines ServiceNow’s powerful Now Platform capabilities with BT’s Global Voice network, integrated into a choice of tools, such as call recording, and a leading CCaaS platform.

The partners have already deployed this with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with the support of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC).

They will now offer it to organisations around the world, including domestic business and public sector customers in the UK.

It marks the latest step in the BT and ServiceNow ongoing partnership. Announced in 2022, the collaboration will allow ServiceNow to partner with BT Group’s Digital unit to modernise service management Group-wide. This will help BT Group create an AI-powered, self-healing digital infrastructure for its business operations.

“Integrating comms into the workflow and case management simplifies compliance processes, makes colleagues more efficient and gives a better experience to everyone,” said Andrew Small, director of voice and digital work, Business, BT. “Our new package in partnership with ServiceNow will create a compelling pathway for customers looking to move to the cloud and achieve all the benefits digital transformation has to offer.”

Chris Bedi, chief digital information officer, ServiceNow, added:

“Customers are increasingly looking for turnkey options to remove complexity from cloud migration and workflows. The combination of our cloud‑based platform, with BT’s global network and communication expertise, will offer customers a unique opportunity to digitise and unify their organisations to be smarter and faster.”