Articles on Trends
The FTC's Microsoft Investigation That Transcends Politics
FTC launches its most sweeping Microsoft probe since the 1990s, targeting AI partnerships, bundling practices, cloud dominance, and national security risks.
How Monopolistic Practices Are Robbing Customers of Choice
UK regulators confirm what many suspected: Microsoft’s licensing model distorts the cloud market, inflates costs, and traps customers in artificial dependencies.
Microsoft Regulatory Roundup 2025
A year of settlements, investigations, and unfinished business. Regulators on three continents took aim at Microsoft’s licensing practices. By December, most had missed.
Does AI Processing Require Explicit Consent Under GDPR? Separating Fact from Fiction
AI processing doesn’t automatically require consent. What matters is the purpose, context, and whether decisions are made without human involvement.
Enterprises Are Still Deciding if Microsoft 365 Copilot Is Worth It
Enterprises continue to debate whether Microsoft 365 Copilot’s AI features justify the cost, as measurable ROI remains elusive.
Microsoft Entra ID Faces Global Antitrust Probes
Microsoft Entra ID faces simultaneous antitrust probes in the US, EU, and UK, as regulators scrutinise its bundling with Microsoft 365, market dominance in identity management, and systemic security risks.
Microsoft to Auto-Install Copilot App on Windows PCs
Microsoft will auto-install its Copilot app on Windows PCs with Office apps from October 2025, bypassing consumer opt-outs and fuelling debate on cost, consent, and competition.
Enterprise Platform Wars-2025
In 2025, enterprise IT splits into two camps: those embracing Microsoft’s integrated platform and those chasing flexibility through best-of-breed strategies. The winning path? It depends entirely on your organisation’s capabilities.
From Floppy Disks to Cloud Subscriptions
From dongles and perpetual EULAs to AI-driven subscriptions and blockchain enforcement — software licensing became a $850B+ force reshaping enterprise IT.
FinOps Trends: Cloud Strategies and Optimization
FinOps Trends 2025: companies shift back to on-premises solutions, optimise cloud expenses, and adopt generative AI.
Microsoft Budgets, Discounts, and investment in AI
Microsoft’s escalating cloud costs and aggressive pricing strategies raise concerns: Is the surge in Azure spending and AI investments truly benefiting enterprises, or just boosting Microsoft’s profits?
Microsoft Enterprise Agreement is Finished. Or is it?
Regardless of your organisation’s size or location, now is the time to begin preparations for the end of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. It may not happen to your organisation in 2025, but considering current developments, it could happen sooner than expected.
Microsoft's AI Strategy: The Impact on Partners
Microsoft’s updated AI strategy raises concerns: is it truly partner-focused or just another way for Microsoft to tighten its grip? Partners need to be wary and prioritize their own interests.
Microsoft FY24 Financial Summary and FY25 Outlook
As Microsoft concludes its fiscal year 2024 (FY24), the company has once again demonstrated its strength across multiple business segments.
CSP Hoster Program explained
CSP Hoster is a special program for Microsoft partners providing hosting and cloud services from their datacentres. It supplements but does not replace SPLA. It allows pre-building and pre-activating virtual machines with Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 apps on hosting.
Service Providers: Microsoft trends for 2024
SPLA changes and updates. New SPLA agreement. CSP-Hosting mistakes. BYOL slow uptake and compliance challenges. Audits and IaaS providers.
Service Providers: Microsoft Trends in 2023
What are the Microsoft trends for hosting providers in 2023? We talk about BYOL, CSP-Hosting, QMTH, SPLA, Windows Server licensing per VM and more.
Flexible Virtualization Benefit
Flexible Virtualization Benefit positively affects both end clients and service providers. So, what is it? How to use it? What licences are eligible?
Microsoft Hosting - Revolutionary Changes in October 2022
In October 2022, Microsoft dramatically simplified the terms and conditions for “Bring Your Own License”. But not every change was positive for everyone.
Microsoft SPLA / CSP-Hosting / BYOL changes and updates
Please bookmark this page as we update it as often as there are changes in Microsoft licensing for Service Providers: SPLA, BYOL, and CSP-Hosting.
Cloud spend spinning out of control
As we are coming out of the “Covid” era, some of us are waking up to a new era of accelerated Cloud-related spending that no one expected.
Microsoft is changing the rules, and it will affect you
Microsoft has announced significant updates to Cloud and licensing terms and conditions. The changes will affect everyone: Cloud providers and their clients.
Five reasons Microsoft 365 is about to get more expensive
Microsoft is about to uplift the prices of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. What are the reasons? What should we expect?
Where is SAM in 2020?
SAM, as we know it, may have reached the point of irrelevance. Is it dead? It’s not. But if we continue holding on to the old ways, we may soon become extinct.