By Andrea Swangard

Image by Brandon Conboy

It’s event season, so represent, re:Invent and Ignite attendees! If you’re going to be a presence at an event, you know the importance of being well prepared. Not only do you need to know your product pitch down pat, but also, you want to stand out and provide a stellar experience for your audience (hey, that booth over there is giving out stickers). Whatever branding you stand behind—playful, quirky, super-high-tech, or all of the above—there are specific assets that always resonate with event goers, or as we like to call them, your soon-to-be customers. 

Get noticed 

Your booth is the coolest booth. Why? Because you used eye-catching booth wraps. These provide a professional, cohesive look to your spot on the event floor—and can grab attention from across the room. They make you easy to spot and can make show attendees gravitate your way. 

While we’re talking about gravitational pull, let’s talk animations. Regardless of booth size, you’ll typically have space for projecting video, which is a major win. Animations give folks something to watch that showcases your product—whether it’s a sequence of images showing a process in action, or bite-sized snippets of your key features and benefits. Not everyone may want to chat, or you’ll be so popular they won’t get the chance to. Give them something to watch so they learn what you’re about in a quick, fun way. 

Provide info-tainment 

Booth animations are entertaining, it’s true. But sometimes people like touching things, and that’s where click-through demos shine. These are demos that customers can interact with, which helps them feel immersed in your product story. Interactive demos are also helpful if your booth is busy, since folks can self-serve. If you do get the chance to interact directly, you’ll want a pitch-perfect pitch deck. These product overviews can surprise and amaze customers with the information you’ll walk them through—and we can create the accompanying talk track for you too, to ensure customers take away your key points. 

Be memorable 

Speaking of takeaways…it’s a good idea to have something tangible for customers to take with them. Create a one- or two-page overview of your product’s key features and benefits (often referred to as a solution brief), and hand them to folks you’ve chatted with. That quick reference guide will provide a visible reminder of you, and it’s something recipients can easily share with others. And let’s not underestimate the importance of swag—stickers, socks, pens (everybody needs pens)—have a supply of goodies that event goers can grab when they stop by. Those mementos keep you top of mind and stoke curiosity when other people see them. You’ve seen those snazzy stickers on people’s laptops…be that sticker! 

To summit up 

Events are fun and full of promise. Boost your presence by preparing beforehand and following up afterward. Before the event, craft an announcement email and social media card to let potential attendees know you’ll be there. Create a landing page on your website that captures your presence at the event and highlights what you’ll showcase and how people can find you. Send that post-event email (“In case you missed it”) that recaps what you did there and what folks missed if they couldn’t attend. 

Finally, those cool animations you used at the event? Cut them down into smaller short videos to repurpose on your website or on social media. If you had conversations with customers or recorded interviews with other companies, turn those into testimonial videos or case studies that you can use on your website and share with partners. 

At 2A, we create all of the assets we’ve discussed, and more—take a look at examples of our work. Ready to make your event experience exceptional? Let’s do this! 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• It’s a big deal, literally: In a multi-billion-dollar co-investment, Intel has agreed to produce a custom AI chip for AWS. Following the news, Intel stock rose 14%. 
• On the brink of a history-making election and a world war, you know what we need? More dormant nuclear power plants to start back up. Despite a meltdown in 1979, Microsoft has entered a new energy-sharing agreement with Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island to produce clean energy that will power datacenters for AI. 
• You know what else we need? To never, ever let go of the HoloLens headsets for the Army. Even though it’s been an expensive, years-long failure, I say we keep going—and Microsoft agrees. It recently partnered with Palmer Luckey, an American entrepreneur who makes interesting facial-hair choices, to embed new software into the system that will “enhance soldiers,” much like “Starship troopers,” because war is a funny ha-ha movie. 
• SaaS log analytics platform Sumo Logic is strategically collaborating with AWS to enhance its services with Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Security Lake. Also, Sumo Logic went full overachiever and earned three competencies in Cloud Operations for education, retail, and government. 
• Vodafone is unleashing the raw power of Microsoft 365 Copilot to help 68,000 employees get more work done. 
• AWS is the last of the three big cloud providers to say uncle to Oracle. Now, AWS customers can access Oracle’s databases on AWS infrastructure with zero-ETL integration. The companies will co-market the offering. 
• NetApp has signed an agreement with AWS to expand and accelerate generative AI efforts. This will increase AWS Marketplace purchases and make it easier for AWS customers to implement NetApp solutions. 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• No single entity can fund the compute power AI needs, like, ruhl soon. So, conspiracy theory subject fan-favorite BlackRock has partnered with Microsoft to launch the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP). The program wants to raise $30 billion for datacenters and related energy infrastructure to power hungry, hungry hippos AI. NVIDIA will serve as an advisor for the initiative. I’m wondering if the first thing they’d advise is to have THOUGHT ABOUT THIS YEARS AGO before AI was forced into every Microsoft app imaginable, but maybe not. 
• After all, not everybody is down with this AI-in-everything approach. Customers testing Microsoft’s AI-shoving in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint have had a “lukewarm response” due to performance and cost issues. 
• Nonetheless, Microsoft says, ACTUALLY you’re wrong, people love us. People want to BE us—just look at these gains.
• And then Marc Benioff was like, that’s great, but no. The Salesforce CEO said that Microsoft’s AI products and strategy have “disappointed many customers,” then pivoted to why we should buy his sh*t instead, so…sounds like a bias-free assessment to me. 
• Will Amazon see a mass employee exodus after demanding a return to the office? A memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that everyone must come back in person, five days a week, by January 2, 2025, or GTFO. The company is also eliminating some management positions and bringing back assigned desks. 
• Companies that want to do new, shiny things with AI will need to cut budgets elsewhere if they hope to afford true transformation, says Microsoft’s VP for Azure. He also said some things that led his PR team to spontaneously combust, such as warning customers that there’s a risk AI could “do something unpredictable” and that organizations are encouraged to review their content because of Microsoft’s lack of transparency around data use. Finally, some honesty around here. 
• In 2024, more job postings require Azure skills and fewer are requiring AWS skills, compared to 2017. 
• Gartner named Microsoft a Magic Quadrant leader for container management and named AWS a Magic Quadrant leader for AI code assistants. 
• On-prem is back, baby! So says AWS. AWS customers are increasingly returning to on-premises infrastructure, which includes 29% of all cloud customers (not just AWS) in the UK. In EMEA, more than half of companies want to deploy workloads on legacy infrastructure. 
• Some rando in Forbes who keeps referring to “we” predicts Microsoft Azure will reach $200B in revenue in the next three years. Good thing you can use wads of cash to plug leaks in nuclear power plants. 
• Microsoft isn’t the only cloud computing company going nuclear—AWS is looking to hire a principal nuclear engineer for its datacenters. In March, the cloud provider acquired an entire nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. 

World domination 

• South African gold-mining firm Gold Fields is moving to AWS. I’d expected the press release to give it a greenwashing spin, but it was good enough to spare us the bullsh*t. 
• Brazil is getting even more datacenters after AWS pours $1.8 billion into expanding infrastructure. 
• AWS announced that it will invest more than $10 billion into AI infrastructure in the UK through 2028. 
• Oooooooo, high-speed Japanese trains! The Central Japan Railway Company is using AWS for its Yamanashi Maglev Line. The transportation company will use IoT, AI, and ML technology from AWS to reduce maintenance costs and improve operations. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

• Lots of people didn’t have their precious apps for nearly eight hours when a distributed denial-of-service cyberattack hit Azure. Even the UK’s Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service went down, leaving judges to sit in their wigs for HOURS with nothing to do! Microsoft said Azure’s defense response made it worse. 
• To prevent a repeat of the CrowdStrike debacle, Microsoft held a closed summit with its security partners and government officials about better collaboration for testing and deployment. Actions will include investments in anti-tampering protections, such as hiring a dad who can hear you turning up the thermostat from a different room. 
• Microsoft released a progress report six months after its promise to make security a priority across the board, which include improved audit logs, a security skilling academy, and reduced token access. Good thing it hasn’t reduced tokin’ access, or I’d be super sad. 

New stuff 

• New upgrades to Copilot include agents that you can boss around, an upgraded LLM, meeting summaries, and more.
• AWS is offering more value to partners through its new Global Passport Program. A select number of international ISVs will participate. The program includes guidance, strategic support, and resources, such as market-evaluation workshops and multi-region deployments. 
• You’ll be interested to know that Amazon Connect now supports AWS CloudFormation. JK, you won’t be interested to know. 
• Azure Advisor Well-Architected Assessment is in public preview. It provides tailored guidance to optimize cloud infrastructure. 
• Is it Fashion Week? Because Microsoft launched three new models for its open-source Phi 3.5 series to help developers with multilingual processing and video analysis, among other tasks. 
• AWS announced Parallel Computing Service, which lets customers set up and manage high-performance computing clusters. 

Professional pivots 

• Carolina Dybeck Happe has left GE to become Microsoft’s new executive VP and COO. The real question is: How legit is her LinkedIn picture? It does not disappoint. 
• Thierry Pellegrino has become the global head of advanced computing at AWS. 

Best friends forever 

• The NFL is using AWS to build a bunch of stuff for the most boring game outside of golf. Tackle Probability is an AI-powered tool that analyzes some boring game stuff. The game giant also developed Digital Athlete to improve player safety, but player safety seems like it starts with not having two 300-lb men slam into each other at top speed for the 100th time in their careers. But I’m no doctor. 
• Digital transformation solutions provider Trianz has integrated its Concierto platform with AWS. Concierto is a zero-code SaaS platform that enables “lightning fast migrations to the cloud.” I’ll forgive the hyperbole only because this had me imagine a company putting its computers in a DeLorean…then it drives really, really fast toward the clock tower…then it’s the future and it has migrated. 
• Cisco has started offering its AppDynamics application management suite as part of Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.
• Polarin by Lightstorm, which for some reason sounds like the sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas in my weird brain, is in Azure Marketplace. It’s a cloud network infrastructure platform, which is def not as fun as my sequel.
• Kong, which develops API technologies and isn’t that giant rubber toy you hide dog treats in, has made its Dedicated Cloud Gateways available for Azure.
• Australian biz-tech provider Brennan earned its Azure Data Warehouse Migration Specialization. 
• Our friends at Pinecone have made the company’s serverless vector database available on Azure. 
• Project-management tech provider LoadSpring Solutions now integrates with Microsoft Azure. 
• Belden has integrated its CloudRail software with AWS IoT SiteWise.
• AI development platform Kore.ai’s XO Automation and Contact Centre AI is now in AWS Marketplace.

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Suzanne Calkins

As skilled users of a visual language, 2A designers are fluent in working with brands. We work closely with clients to understand their industry positioning, partnerships, challenges, and—most importantly—their priorities. From well-known enterprise cloud leaders to startups, we develop assets that rely heavily on impeccable design to generate demand. And the results speak for themselves—our captivating visuals, animations, and design elements win new customers for clients. 

This expertise requires a few key capabilities that 2A designers do really well. Curious what goes into that special sauce? Let’s dive into our four key ingredients. 

Research 

The more specific information a designer can gather, the better. Sometimes there’s conflicting guidance. Sometimes brand guidelines are outdated. And sometimes they don’t exist. Alternatively, a brand may be established but offers so many design options that it needs help focusing on the essentials. 

Our designers use a combination of brand knowledge, experience, and industry expertise to make informed decisions that creatively solve problems. Being a good researcher means staying up to date on the newest offerings from brands, following their social media content, and scouring the brand’s web presence. This informs designers about a brand’s audience, its industry, and what’s available to the public. 

What pairs well with gathering resources? Asking contextual questions and hearing directly from the client about what they like. And asking questions brings us to… 

Communication 

When a product is so new it doesn’t have a brand identity yet, or a company is rebranding, our designers dig deep to learn more. They’re really, really good at asking the right questions to understand what the brand is trying to convey, review examples of designs clients love, and uncover the ultimate goal for the asset(s). 

If the recurring answer we receive is “We don’t really know what we want,” well, that’s where our ample imaginations kick in! 

Creativity 

We love the opportunity to push boundaries and surpass expectations. Initial drafts often include a safe option that closely follows what was discussed. Our experimental options are a bit edgier and often inspire an evolution. 2A designers view these as calculated risks—an opportunity to surprise and delight clients with something fresh and fun. 

Collaboration 

Our design team is tight. Whether reviewing suggestions or getting excited when a new template drops, designers are constantly sharing knowledge, ideas, and inspiration. (2A has a pretty sweet buddy system and we live for our internal trainings.) So while designers often have a focal area of expertise and backgrounds in different styles, collaboration helps add fresh perspectives, teach new methods, and solve challenges. 

With 2A’s design dream team, productivity and creativity flourish, and the hits keep on coming! 

Do you have a content conundrum we can help with? Let’s chat! 

By Olivia Witt

Image by Nicole Todd

Lights! Camera! Unions?  

Long before the “Action!” begins, a successful video production needs an action plan. With the right preparation, magic can happen—whether you’re debuting an epic product promo, highlighting a customer success story, or crafting a video short for social media.   

Practice makes perfect, and our globetrotting video team has learned a few best practices that can help ensure your next production goes off without a hitch.  

1. Scout it out 

Whether you’re in a studio, office building, convention center, or outdoors, scouting your location helps iron out potential issues before filming day. For example, my team and I recently filmed a web series in a small conference room for a client in London. Thankfully, we checked out the room ahead of time and learned important details. A constant hum from the air ventilation system meant we would need extra sound dampening blankets and time to conduct sound tests. And when we saw the low ceilings, we knew we’d need to fly in a wider lens for the overhead camera.  

2. Firm up the schedule before the shoot  

Precise timing is critical to a successful production, so a finalized schedule will create a less stressful day on set. When planning your schedule, account for breaks, buffer time, and information that might impact production. This could be building closing times, hard stops, and anything else that might be helpful for the team to know ahead of time. Sending out a call sheet the night before production days is key to keeping everyone informed. We’ve also learned that bringing a few extra printed copies on the day-of helps everyone stay on task, and sets the team up for success. 

3. Communication, communication, communication  

We know from experience there’s no such thing as overcommunication when a lot of people are involved. Every role is interconnected, so getting everyone on the same page helps prevent costly re-shoots, rushed schedules, and maybe a few tears. If everyone’s clear on the vision and goals, you avoid unnecessary conflict or last-minute changes that compromise the quality of the final product.   

4. Don’t roll the dice on regulations  

Your production may need to follow a set of local regulations, which differ from place to place. For example, when 2A went to Las Vegas for a production, we learned our location was owned by a hotel and casino entertainment company that had its own production union labor regulations. We would need to work directly with the union to source our crew and provide strictly mandated breaks. Knowing the rules helped us flesh out our day-of schedule, providing enough time for breaks without sacrificing the creative vision…or violating labor laws. Phew! 

5. Embrace the unknowns 

No matter how much you prepare for a production, there will always be surprises. You must learn to be flexible and go with the flow of the project, which may turn out a bit differently than expected. Productions have so many moving parts that, inevitably, something will come up and you’ll have to pivot. Maintain calm and wear your problem-solving hat to keep everything running smoothly. Having an agency to lean on that’s well-versed in video shoot plot-twists and creative solutions can be indispensable. 

Looking for end-to-end production services? From creative to staffing to pre-through-post-production, 2A creates eye-catching marketing videos that captivate audiences. Get in touch today. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Gossip (for nerds) 

• Reports of slowing Azure growth following Microsoft’s quarterly earnings report, plus “light sales guidance,” led the stock to dip 5%. Even though earnings grew 10% YoY and cloud sales grew 30% that growth is smaller compared to the previous quarter’s growth. In particular, Intelligent Cloud “missed expectations.” Capital expenditure in early AI is also detracting from profitability. 
  • In response, Microsoft is going to change how it reports numbers for its business segments, kind of like when I tell my husband I put money into savings this month but leave out the part where I bought a $50 concealer (IT GOT RAVE REVIEWS AND I NEED IT, OK?). 
• Regardless of how Microsoft structures its earnings, it should be fine as long as I keep overconsuming TikTok. As of March, the platform spent $20M per month on Azure OpenAI Service through Microsoft—a whopping 25% of the revenue Microsoft was generating through that business. Is an OpenAI rep on their way to Washington, DC to beg Congress not to ban TikTok as I type this? 
• Amazon earnings were bright, with AWS as the driving force behind a quarterly profit of $13.5B—a 19% increase YoY and above expectations. But all this demand isn’t necessarily a great thing, because AWS has “a titanic backlog” for its services. It’s unclear if that’s why AWS closed some of its services to new customers, such as Amazon S3 Select, or whether they plan on retiring those services down the road.  
• Meanwhile, The demand for AI is more than Microsoft can accommodate, so the cloud giant is spending billions to use third-party centers while it builds out more of its own.
• Like Microsoft, AWS is spending a significant amount on capital ($16.4B for Q2!), which includes building new data centers instead of refurbishing old ones. Next up: Hyderabad, India. 
  • Investments also include the race to create AI chips that are cheaper and faster than NVIDIA’s.
• In a leaked internal fireside chat, the AWS CEO told the company’s software developers that they need to find other skills because AI is going to start coding for them. “Upskill and learn new technologies” was the depth of the direction they received. Are you feeling left out? Don’t—the CEO said most white-collar jobs will look completely different in five to 10 years. Time to upskill and learn new technologies!!!!
• Microsoft wasn’t the only cloud provider to experience at outage at the end of July—AWS had connectivity issues for a day, preventing customers from accessing storage, databases, and other services. The guest contributor who wrote this article asked if this dependency on two clouds calls for a plan B, and lucky for him, he’s a man and doesn’t have to think about equitable access. OH YOU MEAN THE OTHER PLAN B…right right, yes, let’s get on that. 
• Where was Microsoft’s “the customer is not always right” mentality when I was a waitress? Delta’s CEO, Microsoft, and CrowdStrike exchanged some WORDS over July’s outage. Microsoft and CrowdtSrike are blaming Delta for its slow recovery, saying the airline refused Microsoft’s help. Delta is like “We don’t need your help, also, we hate you and this is your fault.” 
• Last year, Nokia and AWS decided to collaborate. Well, they collaborated a little too hard because now AWS is suing Nokia for stealing patented intellectual property. I almost never say this, but this article about the conflict is great from start to finish, and involves rowing teams beating each other with oars, a “criminal pivot” for a business strategy, and German indifference. Thanks Iain Morris.  

World domination 

• The US government is doing its darndest to keep advanced chips and other AI capabilities out of the hands of China, but as Jeff Goldblum’s character states in Jurassic Park, nature finds a way—and that way is AWS. They are exploiting a loophole in which Chinese companies can access technology like NVIDIA A100 chips through cloud providers who are fully allowed to operate in the country (or, through intermediary companies). But this velociraptor has figured out how to have babies y’all. 
• Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service achieved FedRAMP certification, which means some federal agencies now have permission to use it for sensitive datasets. The IRS started with the prompt, “Show me everyone who is not paying their taxes,” which yielded a list of extremely wealthy individuals. So, they adjusted the prompt to say “Compile a list of poor souls who make under $30k a year and were late filing by two days so we can rain hellfire upon them without fear of them being able to afford an accountant.” 
  • That FedRAMP certification came just in time for Microsoft and Palantir to sell cloud-enabled AI and data analytics to US defense and intelligence agencies. 
• AWS is talking to UK regulators like they lied about doing their homework. The cloud provider is “disappointed in [the investigation]” of the AWS-Anthropic relationship, claiming it is in no way anti-competitive, along with calls to “end the probe” like it’s being abducted by a UFO or something. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

• A hacker group is exploiting vulnerabilities in Azure subdomains to spread disinformation on Android phones via push alerts that lead users to fake news sites. My favorite part about this story is that the fake news was about—wait for it—Harry Connick Jr. Don’t they want people to actually click on the links? No offense to HCJ, but WGAF? 
• Just two weeks after the famed CrowdStrike update outage, Microsoft experienced another global outage due to a cyberattack that affected Outlook, Azure, and Minecraft. Office workers and middle school nerds everywhere were distraught. The 10-hour downtime was the result of a DDoS attack and Microsoft’s “failure to properly defend against it.” Does everybody remember the recent Microsoft announcement that executive bonuses would be tied to security performance? Looks like you’re not getting that boat this year, David. 
• At its annual conference in Vegas, Black Hat discovered six critical vulnerabilities (they didn’t get the memo that that should have stayed in Vegas). Is AWS trying to be like Microsoft with all these security headlines? AWS, just be yourself. You don’t need to Single White Female your competitor, it’s OK, we like you for YOU. 
  • But then, attackers were able to grab AWS keys and access tokens in a data extortion campaign, as uncovered by Networks’ Unit 42 arm. 
• Is there anything more ironic (or, iconic) than an infected health bot? Privilege escalation flaws in Azure’s cloud-based AI Health Bot Service allowed unauthorized access to customers’ resources via a malicious attack. When users asked what they should do about a health problem, such as a rash, the health bot responded “Put a bird on it” 100% of the time (that was for my fellow Portlandia lovers only). A research engineer at cybersecurity firm Tenable says this is what happens when AI development is rushed. 

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• AWS is going to power GE HealthCare’s generative AI models via Amazon Bedrock, with the aim of improving patient care. Honestly, the bar for good healthcare is so low in this country that you could put an extra garbage can in the exam room and I’d call that improving patient care. 
• I guess Leeds Teaching Hospital in England wants to put a bird on everything now that it has moved entirely to Azure.
• Telecoms company Lumen Technologies is using Azure to drive AI adoption and innovation. In return, Microsoft will use Lumen’s Private Connectivity Fabric to strengthen connectivity capabilities among Microsoft data centers. 
• More than half of Y Combinator startups are accepting Microsoft’s cloud credits initiative, which aims to get promising young companies to build on Azure. 

New stuff  

• As AWS wins new clients in the public sector, it has decided to expand its cohort of government tech suppliers. The AWS Champions Program highlights vendors and public agencies who use AWS for civic advancement.  
• Microsoft Teams has a new app that unifies your personal and work accounts. Sounds…like…a great…idea… 
• Mithra, which sounds like some angry Greek goddess, is the newest platform from AWS. The CIO went on to explain what it does “in simplest terms” but it was not, in fact, the simplest terms, so figure it out for yourself. 
• Oracle has an official partnership with Microsoft but doesn’t yet offer its MySQL Heatwave for Azure. However, Oracle just announced it has made the database service available on AWS despite no official partnership with the cloud provider. MySQL Heatwave itself runs on AWS. 

Professional Pivots 

• Microsoft welcomed its new AI Transformation Officer, Pamela Maynard, formerly CEO of Avanade. 

Best Friends Forever 

New to Azure Marketplace: 

• Ivanti, which sounds like a cheap clothing brand that’s trying to pass for Italian high fashion, will help Microsoft customers break down barriers between IT and security. 
• iiDENTIFii, a company that apparently never wants to be Googled properly, is bringing its biometric identity authentication to Azure Marketplace. 
• Lumifi has added its managed detection and response services 
• Pathlock Cloud, which offers identity governance solutions, is on Azure Marketplace 
• Mobile device management company Jamf became a Microsoft Partner and will enter Azure Marketplace later this year.’

New to AWS Marketplace:  

• MicroStrategy ONE for Government, a managed SaaS solution for data security and governance 
• Versium’ REACH APIs (dang, y’all don’t have to yell), a data enrichment and cleansing tool 
• Veritone’s enterprise AI solutions for media and entertainment companies 
• LastPass, a password and identity management solution 

By Katy Nally, Kelly Schermer

Image by Nicole Todd

We name stuff funny. We call our monthly meeting that showcases cool projects Circle Time, the special Friday once a month when the office is closed, FriYAY, and the slide outline made up of little squares, chiclets. So, it’s probably no surprise that we call our company values, Words we work by (WWWB).  

We think of WWWB as our North Star—the guiding light we use to help us keep what’s great about 2A while we grow. Our WWWB also allow us to build a collective identity as a team so new people come on board faster. 

Curious yet? Please say yes, we would really love to share them.    

• We’re helpful: When it comes to work, we’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves. Whether it’s colleagues or clients, we all pitch in to get it done and help everyone thrive.  
  We know that teamwork makes the dream work >> 
• We’re serious about our work: We show up to do the work, and we commit to doing it well. We give each project the effort it needs.  
  We’ll show you how serious we are >> 
• We tack toward improvement: There’s always room to get better, and that’s where we’re headed. We experiment, learn, and prioritize to challenge our path.  
  We’re still a work in progress >> 
• We work to build trust: A foundation of trust with a diverse community of colleagues and clients makes our days and our work better. We’re curious and proactive about building trust.  
  We love a good trust fall >> 

The secret to 2A’s high-quality work and engaging culture lies in our WWWB. Because really, Where Would We Be without them?  

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• You win some, you lose some: Xerox is moving its legacy data-center workloads to Azure, which unfortunately doesn’t involve photocopying body parts and leaving the prints for other attorneys to discover (like when my dad used to take us to his office as kids: “It’s making people very uncomfortable, you have to stop”). Meanwhile, the Broad Institute at MIT is not renewing its Azure contract, with a TBD on where it goes next. 
• Microsoft has stepped down from its non-voting observer seat on OpenAI’s board. So, it gave up its role of doing nothing but getting the tea. Speculators say the OpenAI seat will go to an Apple executive following a recent deal between the two companies. And this might sting a little, but OpenAI is selling more of its AI models than Microsoft is. 
• That’s OK because Microsoft is busy making its own deals—starting with Adept, a young AI startup. I went to Adept’s website and I still have no idea what the company does. DM me if you can explain it like I’m five years old.
• Microsoft led a $40M investment in Armada, which provides off-grid, satellite-connected modular centers that customers can buy through Azure. Is this like the prepper of the tech world? 
• Criteo is collaborating with Microsoft Advertising. TL;DR: they’re using and selling each other’s products to retailers.
• Deloitte will use Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker in its products to help clients “augment their workflows.” Does anyone want their workflows augmented? I don’t. 
• After agreeing to essentially contract out its cloud services so Microsoft can keep offering generative AI, wouldntyaknowit, Oracle’s Autonomous Database has become available on Azure.
• Digital mapmaker TomTom signed a long-term deal with Microsoft to bring its maps and traffic data to Azure Maps and other Microsoft products. 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• AWS is investigating whether or not Perplexity AI has been “scraping” websites that have tried to block the practice. Scraping, which in this case is not about cleaning out your bong with an unbent paper clip, is the act of extracting data for things like market research or content analysis. And it’s forbidden by AWS. Because Perplexity is an AWS customer, it must adhere to the cloud provider’s rules. Do as I say, not as I do, I guess.
• AWS, Google, and Microsoft are among several tech companies calling for industry-wide adoption of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), a statement of greenhouse gas emissions that’s verified by a third party. 
• This is funny because some Amazon and AWS employees past and present are calling the company’s sustainability claims cap. (See how familiar I am with the lingo of today’s youth? How sigma of me). There have been walkouts and accusations of “creative accounting.” (I know someone who creatively accounted 34 times, but I’ll tell you about it later.) 
• Microsoft is scrapping the underwater data center it started in 2013, and in the same breath the spokesperson was basically like, “It worked, but also it didn’t work.” That last part I could have told you for free. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

• By now, you know the details of the CrowdStrike/Microsoft debacle that affected almost nine-million devices—and ruined vacations, halted flights, stopped surgeries, paused banking, and crapped on emergency services. If you don’t, then you’ve been living under a rock, and I suggest you return to that rock because things are rough out here. 
• After advising customers to reboot at least 15 times to solve the issue, Microsoft and CrowdStrike realized that they’ll need to write some very large checks. (On top of the $22M settlement it paid to EU regulators for something else…. And also the $14M settlement it paid to California after penalizing workers who took medical or family care leave.) But, more importantly, the “blue screen of death” is looking like a solid Halloween costume right now. 
• It wasn’t just the faulty CrowdStrike update that caused problems: Azure and Microsoft 365 customers experienced a separate outage stemming from the Central US region, which greatly affected airlines. Let’s pour one out for anyone who had a plane ticket this past week. 

World domination 

• Microsoft is offering Chinese businesses a loophole to get around OpenAI’s exclusion of Chinese customers (even those using VPNs). But the US won’t allow China to access this advanced technology for long, because we can be next-level savage like that. 
• In the meantime, Microsoft is worming its way into Hong Kong schools by incorporating OpenAI into education services.
• Chile will soon have more than one of the world’s largest swimming pools—it will brag about a second AWS data center in 2026. And in Australia, AWS is building a high-security data center for the down-under government in a $2B, 10-year, top-secret project. This means nobody knows the location, except we do: it’s in the Outback, because where else would you secretly build a data center? 
• To get more public agencies on board with generative AI, AWS is doing what it does best: throwing money at it. The company announced a $50M investment in its Public Sector Impact Initiative, which is mostly about giving promotional credits to the government to use solutions like Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Q. 
• Remember that $1.5B investment Microsoft made in G42, an United Arab Emirates–based AI company? Republican lawmakers want to know what’s up with that. They demand info and they demand it NOW. Microsoft is all like, CHILL OUT we care about security…can’t you tell? 
• Google is giving off some big Pick Me energy, per my last leaked memo. In a 500M Euro effort to lure European cloud companies away from Microsoft, the companies stuck with Microsoft anyway. Google’s incentive was offered on the condition that the companies held their ground on the anti-trust allegations against Microsoft. Does anyone have some soap, because this is DIRTY. 

New stuff 

• AWS Graviton4 Cloud Processors for EC2 R8g are now generally available; AWS claims the combo is more energy efficient and more powerful—and they have receipts. AWS is also developing an even more powerful AI chip, Trainium3, which will compete with NVIDIA’s family of Blackwell chips. AWS is preparing its data centers for increased demand—such as using liquid-cooling and cold-plate technology. So much for net-zero by 2040. 
• Amazon Q can provide customer service agents with step-by-step guides on how to handle customer calls, and never in my life have I wanted an AI to hallucinate in any given scenario. “Step 3: Tell customer your butt itches and to please hold while you scratch it. Step 4: Hang up.” 
• AWS is also throwing credits at startups, again, to win market share away from Microsoft. 
• Welcome, App Studio! It’s the newest generative AI solution from AWS that promises to build you an app based on a written prompt. Why do I feel like this will be used for evil? 
• Avoiding all hyperbole, Automation Anywhere is “automating the impossible” using Azure OpenAI Service. Does that mean it will automate Elon Musk’s donations to food banks? 

Professional pivots 

• NVIDIA hired Howard Wright, formerly AWS VP and Global Head of Startups, to lead its startup ecosystem.
• Google has hired two executives away from competitors: Saurabh Tiwary, formerly of Microsoft’s Copilot arm, and Raj Pai, formerly of the EC2 arm at AWS. They’ll help lead Google’s cloud-based AI business. 

Best friends forever 

• AWS, Microsoft, Intel, Google, and other puppeteers of humanity have joined the Fintech Open Source Foundation, which aims to “enhance the financial service industry’s technology ecosystem through open-source initiatives.” (Because what banks need is more free shit.) In partnership with financial institutions, the foundation will set common standards. 
• I scream, you scream, we all scream for ISVs! Browse Microsoft’s 2024 Partners of the Year. 
• SourceFuse earned AWS Premier Tier Services Partner status. 
• CCL, a provider of IT and hybrid cloud services, is the first launch partner for Microsoft’s New Zealand cloud region.
• Soracom, a provider of advanced IoT connectivity, has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate program. 
• Telco Systems’ Edgility platform passed the AWS Foundational Technical Review validation for AWS IoT Greengrass and has joined the AWS Partner Network. 
• New to AWS Marketplace: Observo AI, which creates security and observability data pipelines. 

Additions to Azure Marketplace 

• Raffle AI, which specializes in chat assistants and search technology. 
• Adaptive’s Aeron, a suite of low-latency messaging tools for financial traders. 
• NIQ’s Activate platform, which provides insights for retailers and CPG companies.
• ClickHouse Cloud, which gives Azure customers options for deploying and managing their analytics workloads.
• SureImpact Nonprofit, which helps charities measure outcomes. 
• Forescout’s Risk and Exposure Management Solution. 

By Richa Dubey

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Dear Client, 

You already know there’s more to marketing than using buzzwords and hoping for the best. (Take a bow, large language models.) However, IDKIYK, that is, “I don’t know if you know” but we excel at using the kind of language that speaks to your audience—from Gen Z to technology partners.  

Let’s talk industry speak in vertical marketing. We’ve seen a profusion of buzzwords, like quantamental investment and precision medicine in this context. However, for effective marketing, it isn’t enough to just know the lexicon and how it’s used. You need an understanding of the industry. What are the current challenges? What are the prime drivers? How is it modernizing? Is it heavily regulated? What supporting role does technology play?  

Beyond that, you also need to reflect your organization’s technology offerings and incorporate your brand voice (deployment of generative artificial intelligence in digital twins, anyone?).  

At 2A we focus on key verticals like financial services and healthcare. From life sciences to manufacturing, and retail to government, we understand the audiences you speak to, the issues that concern them, and the language they relate to. Whether it’s compliance in healthcare, FSI challenges with data residency, or omnichannel customer service in retail, we understand your customers’ concerns. 

Most of all, we understand your organization and audience, and how you want to position your offering in a particular industry vertical. We know that the DNA double helix has a right-handed spin and health insurance companies are called “payors” (not ”payers”). We also recognize that to effectively position your work at Hanover Messe—one of the world’s largest industrial trade fairs with a global audience of about 200,000—you need to use global English that is easily understood by non-native English speakers and will translate well into other languages.   

We back up this understanding with a rigorous process. We research the industry landscape, validate what we know, consult with you to refine the messaging, and interview your partners or customers if required. After we’ve done our research, we use your voice and brand to craft a compelling marketing asset tailored to the needs of your industry-focused audience.   

Check out a sampling of our projects across key AWS verticals. And give us a call if you like what you see.   

We remain industriously yours, 

2A 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• NinjaTech AI, which seems like a not-OK name for a company in 2024, is using machine learning chips from AWS for its new service, Ninja. (Wow, they’re really leaning into this.) Ninja can plan and execute (as ninjas sometimes do) everyday tasks such as scheduling meetings, conducting research, and completing coding tasks. I’ve heard humans also do this, but who needs them anymore! 
• HashiCorp and AWS are expanding their strategic collaboration to do stuff like create policy about architecting and configuring Terraform on AWS. You can count me out of that one. I’d rather blow-dry my eyeballs. 
• Will AT&T actually work in my neighborhood now that it’s moving its 5G to Microsoft? Microsoft is acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud Technology and staff “to eventually handle all of the wireless carrier’s 5G traffic.” It’s worth noting that both AWS and Microsoft are competing for huge telecom clients as the industry deploys new 5G networks, but so far those deals “aren’t yet generating substantial revenue.” 
• MediaTek, a Taiwanese chip designer, is designing an ARM-based chip that will run Microsoft Windows OS. MediaTek stock has risen following this news, and I am willing to bet Nancy Pelosi—I mean her husband—conveniently bought some of that stock on a total whim, just total dumb luck, the week prior. 
• SAP has committed to using three types of AWS chips to support its SAP HANA Cloud. 
• To ensure capacity meets the demands of OpenAI users, Microsoft will run some of its workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.🤯 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI are facing an antitrust investigation in the US. The goal is to determine if the arrangements among these companies are meant to shut out competition in the AI industry. Apparently, that isn’t plainly obvious and we need a whole investigation for it. 
• Microsoft is cutting around 1,000 jobs in its Azure and HoloLens divisions. It needs to free up resources for AI initiatives. 
• AWS re:Inforce 2024 had a big security theme—what timing, given Microsoft’s highly public flailing and floundering in the space. The cloud provider announced it will push multi-factor authentication and hosted many sessions around security best practices. 

World domination 

• If the government wants to monitor Microsoft’s AI dominance, then the company will just go to Sweden, which has better meatballs anyhows. Microsoft is investing $3.2B to expand its AI infrastructure in places like Staffanstorp, which sounds like one of the houses in Harry Potter. 
• Is AWS the next Eurovision contestant? Break out the mullets and costumes that make you feel weird inside, because the cloud provider is setting up (more) shop in Italy, Spain, and Germany. After dedicating 15.7B Euros to its Spain Region, Germany is ponying up 8.8B Euros to scale its Frankfurt Region and will either expand its Milan data center or build a new one somewhere else in the boot. This is like my semester abroad, but without the absinthe and space brownies!! And without the data centers. Even I had limits. 
• AWS is also launching a Region in Taiwan. This is…a choice that interests me (although, Warren Buffet can be wrong). 
• French telecom provider Orange is partnering with AWS to offer cloud computing in Morocco and Senegal. Orange will use the AWS Wavelength platform and rely on its own data centers to provide services, since these are the only two places on earth that AWS hasn’t stomped on with data centers. YET. 
• Norwegian-owned telecom Telenor Group is using AWS technology to create a sovereign cloud environment. Together, they’ll offer customers security and sovereignty solutions. Also, these dudes look chill and nice, just hangin’ outside corporate HQ talking about Norwegian things like Vikings and fjords. I bet they do cool sovereign stuff. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

• Summer is the perfect time for grilling out, and I don’t just mean on the BBQ—Microsoft president Brad Smith was part of a good grilling from the House of Homeland Security Committee following cyberattacks on the federal government. A ProPublica investigation found that Smith and co. ignored important warnings that could have, if heeded, prevented the breach. The government was like Will you PRETTY PLEASE stop doing that shiz and Smith was like YES ALL EMPLOYEES WILL CARE NOW, I PINKY PROMISE. 
• Probably the biggest drama this past month was Microsoft’s “embarrassing” backpedaling of its Recall software on Copilot Plus PC, which can screenshot everything someone does on the new Qualcomm-powered laptops. Researchers labeled it a “security disaster” (Microsoft broke its pinky promise!!) because it makes stealing information a piece of cake for hackers. Microsoft rolled it back “in secret” and is now testing it. Can we just love the fact that a product named “Recall” was recalled? Like, immediately? 
• Well, just cut off that pinky because a researcher found a bug that allows hackers to spoof real Microsoft corporate emails, which means they can send phishing emails using real people’s email addresses. It only works when sending to Outlook addresses, which is only a few hundred million people, so…. (At the time of reporting, the bug hadn’t been patched.) 

Professional pivots 

• Now settled in his new position as CEO of AWS, Matt Garman shared some important details on sales team structure and executive changes. Settling out is Bratin Saha, a former AI general manager at AWS who has worked on Amazon Bedrock and other AI products. He‘s now the chief product and technology officer at DigitalOcean, a nascent but promising cloud competitor, according to analysts. 
• The director of Amazon EC2 product management, Chetan Kapoor, also told AWS peace out after eight years with the company. Nobody knows where he’s going—oh Chetan, you feather in the wind, you. 

New stuff 

• AWS introduced two new AI certifications for professionals who want to serve the AWS overlords build a career in AI. These free or low-cost training courses (Machine Learning Engineer and AI Practitioner) are meant to provide the “lack of expertise” businesses need to deploy and monitor models. 
• Microsoft announced some updates to Microsoft Fabric at Build 2024 that include customized workflows, a new module called Real-Time Intelligence, and the availability of Copilot for Power BI. 
• SAP has integrated its AI Core with foundation models in Amazon Bedrock, which it claims will help businesses improve their ERP platforms by driving efficiency. Gotta drive efficiency—otherwise, why are we on this rock? 
• Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet model is now available in Amazon Bedrock. I was going to throw a party but instead decided to get a cup of water from the kitchen. 
• After I hydrate, maybe I can plan something special to celebrate the fact that Amazon Connect now has an Analytics Data Lake. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INSIGHTS!?! I want to get hired as a data center analyst so I can create charts that show how many times a day angry customers use the phrases “This is bullshit” and “I’ve been on hold for 40 goddamn minutes” and stuff like that. First stop on the resume train: American Airlines. 
• As we descend into the eighth circle of hell, you’ll find AI-driven contact centers, where tortured souls wait forever to speak with someone but never will. Microsoft is taking Copilot to call centers to help chatbots scan manuals so they can better answer questions and field customer calls. 
• Not that anyone cares, especially me, but it’s now easier to manage the entire machine learning lifecycle if you’re a developer on AWS with the fully managed MLflow on Amazon SageMaker. 
• There are two new previews from Microsoft: a flex consumption plan for Azure Functions and a premium version of Azure Bastion virtual machine. Truly, truly life-changing. 

Best Friends Forever 

• An expanded collaboration between Microsoft and product design software provider Ansys will allow customers to deploy Ansys Access on Azure through the Azure Marketplace. 

By Katy Nally

Image by Jenni Lydell

So you’re in a new [business] relationship and you want to shout it from the rooftops. Congrats! That honeymoon phase always feels good. Now, before you jump to the nearest balcony to reenact Romeo and Juliet, let’s think through the perfect sonnet you should deliver. You’ll need something that captures the better-together essence of your new partnership and makes your joint customers swoon.  

As a B2B marketing agency, we recommend starting with a messaging and positioning framework (MPF) to get the main points just right. An MPF is a perfect way to strip down your story to reveal the top-line benefits customers will experience from your dynamic duo. Then we transform those benefits into pure poetry that would make Neruda proud. The end result is a document that includes key talking points and copy blocks you can pop into any joint marketing content. See for yourself: 

Doing an MPF as the basis for your content strategy makes sure everyone—on both sides of the partnership—agrees on your differentiators and describes the value uniformly. This way, customers hear a persuasive, consistent message from all angles.  

Pop quiz time 

Now that you’re sold on MPFs, take our partnership quiz! You’ll find out which kind of better-together story is best for you and yours. Many of the joint MPFs we create are for ISV partners who want to describe the value of their alliance with a major cloud provider. There are a few ways to do this, and the pillar structure varies a bit, based on how different solutions support one another.  

Bonus—there’s no wrong answer 😊 

Which one best describes you and your partner? 

A) Feeling one sided but enjoying the attention: This framework adapts the partner’s existing messaging by popping in the cloud provider where it makes sense. Think of this one as light on the cloud, heavy on the partner. It slots in cloud benefits where they make sense, giving customers a glimpse into the value of the combined partnership. It’s a good approach if the relationship is a little fraught or tricky to talk about. 

B) Dating but not ready to move in together: This includes one pillar for the partner, one for the cloud provider, and one for both. This structure plays it safe by giving each side a chance to share existing messaging. The combined pillar explains their joint value and elaborates where possible. If the partnership were new, this approach would be a good fit.  

C) Thinking of proposing tomorrow: This uses a structure where each pillar explains the partnership through a major customer benefit. This approach works well when there are a lot of juicy details about how the partner and cloud provider work together. They’ve likely co-developed integrations or POCs and have a roadmap for future work. They generally already have joint customers and it’s easier to pin down the differentiators of their partnership. 

The results are in! 

If you chose A, B, or C, you’re in luck! Our storytellers and consultants would love to learn more about your partnership and spin up an MPF for you. Reach out to learn more. Happy partnering!