By Nora Bright, The 2A Team

Image by Thad Allen

Every year at 2A, members of our team share their favorite album of the year—and last year we started compiling a playlist so folks can dance along. This year’s soundtrack is a vibrant tapestry made up of everything from ambient chill to Bollywood beats, experimental sounds to indie anthems, each chosen by a music-loving 2A-er. 

One thing that’s for sure is our eclectic playlist matches the diverse backgrounds of the team members who contributed—including a former journalist, small business owner, nonprofit director, and cupcake baker. Our hobbies range from fly fishing, making miniature models, filming shorts, DJing for community radio, to beer brewing! We’re a talented bunch and we’re all bringing a different flavor to the table. So if our playlist feels a little all over the place, it should! 

Happy listening—and we hope you enjoy our wild music mix! 

Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack) – Various Artists (curated by Metro Boomin) 

With a great franchise comes great responsibility, and Metro Boomin delivers! The entire album showcases Metro’s super-producer abilities to weave a sonic web of synths and strings into a cohesive universe of sound. In an album packed with rap heavyweights, it’s the production on the quiet, more intimate songs that grip my attention, like  “Hummingbird” and “Calling.” – Madeline Sy 

I Killed Your Dog – L’Rain 

L’Rain’s album I Killed Your Dog fuses experimental sounds with soulful melodies, creating an experience that is as haunting as it is beautiful. Each track is a blend of eclectic rhythms, bold textures, and L’Rain’s rich, emotive vocals. We’ve had this one on repeat. – Mitchell Thompson 

New Blue Sun – Andre 3000 

While New Blue Sun is not the rap album many waited 17 years for from Andre 3000, it still delivers. If you are anything like me, you have been following the Andre 3000 seen with flute sightings, a la Where’s Waldo, on social media. Andre 3000 channels Coltrane and other experimental jazz greats with his improvisational flute playing and adds atmospheric ambient layers to bring you along on his recent travels and latest inspiration. This album tells a story without using any words. Be ready to read the energy to follow along on the journey. – Alyson Stoner-Rhoades 

Suntub – ML Buch 

ML Buch (pronounced “book”) is a Danish musician whose sound is very hard to place. Her music is both naturalistic and uncanny, analog and electronic, radiantly warm yet detached, and reminiscent of 90’s alt rock while ahead of its time. She manages to accomplish the rare feat of making something entirely new, challenging, yet completely accessible. – Brian Dionisi 

Everyone’s Crushed – Water from Your Eyes 

The first time I heard a song from Everyone’s Crushed I instantly perked up and focused—I’d never heard anything quite like it. The albums has off-tune singing, dissonant sounds, and intricate and strange textures. Occasionally, a beautiful pop moment emerges from the chaos. Water from Your Eyes makes you work for it and it’s so worth it. – Nora Bright 

Principia – En Attendant Ana 

Parisian indie outfit En Attendant Ana effortlessly merges sweet, pop melodies with a garage punk sensibility on their third album. Take a dash of the Velvet Underground, mix it with heap of Stereolab, a pinch of krautrock, a drizzle of early French pop, et voilà—you’d have something that sounds like Principia. – Suzanne Calkins 

Nothing for Me, Please – Dean Johnson 

The 15-years-in-the-making debut album from Seattle bartender/musician will have you wondering if maybe you, too, are in fact a cowboy ‘neath faraway skies. Folky, alt-country tunes paired with a unique voice. It’s either the soundtrack to your neighborhood dive bar, or some ranch in Wyoming, or maybe both. But either way, an all around lovely set of songs.  – Mike Lahoda 

Mo Lowda & the Humble – Mo Lowda & the Humble 

There is no such thing as too many indie rock bands in the world. Mo Lowda & the Humble bring a cool mix of moodiness and freshness. Caiolas’ vocals? They’re like a rollercoaster—sometimes contemplative, kinda mournful, then suddenly triumphant, all with a catchy vibe. – Michelle Najarian 

Flaws in Our Design – ODESZA, Yellow House 

ODESZA can do no wrong in my book, and their collaborations are no exception. A slight departure from their typical moody electro sound, this EP with Yellow House is bright, upbeat, and the perfect soundtrack to a summer day (or for channeling summer feels in the depths of winter!) – Andrea Swangard 

Cracker Island – Gorillaz ft Tame Impala 

The Gorillaz keep the core of their sound while expanding into a slightly more commercial approach, incorporating collabs with artists like Beck, Tame Impala, and Stevie Nicks. It gives each song a slightly different bent, though it keeps them all recognizable to Gorillaz lovers. Some songs are lazy and dreamy, and others you can dance to, but they’re all easy listening. What’s not to like? – Jane Dornemann 

Rush – Måneskin  

“I’m still rock and roll!” I whisper to myself as I stand in my kitchen after getting my kids to bed, grab a soapy spatula, and treat my dog to evening Måneskin kitchen karaoke. It’s a little rock. It’s a little punk. It’s a little pop. It’s very glam. I love bopping around to “KOOL KIDS” and “SUPERMODEL.” – Erin McCaul 

Rush – Måneskin 

I fell in love with Måneskin because of “SUPERMODEL,” which was released last year but was added to this year’s album called Rush. But I now think all their songs are great. Their sound reminds me of the rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Rolling Stones, the Hollies, the Doors, and Led Zeppelin were raw—but there’s some grunge in there, along with bands like the Damned. That kind of popular music was my first love, and it really takes me back. Interestingly, the leads of the band were born in 1999 and 2000. – Forsyth Alexander 

Paathan (Soundtrack) – Vishal-Shekhar, Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara 

More than just a comeback vehicle for one of the biggest stars in Bollywood, the success of the song “Jhoome Jo Pathaan,” and the film, were a testament to India’s enduring love of Shah Rukh Khan despite all the right-wing attempts to kill his career. The album flies in the face of bigotry, embraces love across the border, and celebrates spectacle both through the music of the talented duo, Vishal-Shekhar, and singers Arijit and Shilpa Rao. And of course, the syncopation and scattered Spanish influence makes the album eminently danceable in true Bollywood style. – Richa Dubey 

Pizza Tower (Soundtrack) – Various Artists 

Pizza Tower was a surprise favorite video game for me this year, a weird little indie game with style and character to spare. But what really enhances its gonzo cartoon nature is the soundtrack, a wild and funky electronic blast of energy. The music team blends golden-age hip hop samples, 90s house beats, and 00s video game chiptunes into an eclectically-textured high-NRG soundscape that is just as engaging to listen to outside of the game. – Thad Allen 

The Maine – The Maine 

After 16 years as a band, The Maine has released a self-titled album and they’ve never sounded more like themselves. You can tell they have honed their craft over the years and are enjoying the ride with this ninth LP added to their discography. This album is introspective and honest but still has some really fun beats to get you grooving. – Julianne Medenblik 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

If you turn this newsletter into a drinking game and take a shot every time I have to say “AI” then get ready to die of alcohol poisoning. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE INVENT SOMETHING ELSE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Gossip (for nerds)

• I might as well enjoy this, so here are some juicy tidbits from last round’s OpenAI | Microsoft | OpenAI fiasco: Microsoft had been preparing its San Francisco offices to accept defecting OpenAI refugees, from readying laptops for them to arranging training clusters. Daaaaang that’s so thirsty it’s embarrassing. And even worse, it doesn’t look like Microsoft will have much presence on the new OpenAI board. Even if things had gone through, regulators in the UK thought the OpenAI-Microsoft relationship would’ve been super sus and were ready to unleash a world of hurt. Anyway, Microsoft, if you’re reading this, I really need a new laptop and it seems like you have some extras. (Bonus: The leaked internal memo.)
• Business Insider published an article about AI fatigue, sales tension, and overall issues at AWS but I can’t drink the tea unless I pay them. Which I won’t.
• But the kind and generous people at Techspot will give it up to us gossip-loving, thrill-seeking tech writers for free. Amazon employees are quitting over the company’s return-to-the-office mandate (which includes required relocations).
• Amazon is losing people on the other side of the globe, too. The second top executive in its India and South Asia region, the interim head of AWS India, has abruptly quit. She was “interim” because they needed someone to fill the spot fast when the last person abruptly quit.

Wheelin’ and dealin’

• This is like the advent calendar for drunk tech news, and today’s game is: take a shot every time I say “collaborate” in any form of the verb. SO MUCH COLLABORATION:
  • Accenture is collaborating with AWS to help customers implement Amazon Q. Informatica launched a new set of cloud data management services in collaboration with AWS, which will help data scientists and departmental users of all levels to do more stuff with data. IBM is collaborating with AWS to launch a new cloud database, Amazon RD for Db2, a fully managed offering that makes it easier to manage data for AI workloads across hybrid environments. (That was a twofer, you’re welcome.)
  • And DataStax is collaborating with AWS (are you dead yet? Can you still read the words on this screen? Are you crying? Is your liver screaming?) to take their partnership “to the next level of generative AI.” The article proceeds to give zero details of substance. Whoever wrote this article was that kid who didn’t read the book but somehow bangs out a decent book report. It’s a talented mirage.

World domination

• Air India is moving its IT infrastructure to Azure, shutting down its data centers in Mumbai and New Delhi. Hopefully, this will help Air India’s online reviews, with flyers calling it a “non-recommended airline” where “nobody is kind” and “serves too much food,” leaving “a lasting impression of dissatisfaction” on many a traveler.
• Even though Microsoft will invest 2.5B British pounds in AI infrastructure in the UK, Google still wants the British government to investigate Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices.
• Microsoft has turned its attention to the French (knockoffs) in Quebec, with a $500M infrastructure and skilling investment that will prepare the province for AI. “Mon dieu!” said all the Quebecois. “Will zey allow cigarettes in zee data centaaaaire?”
• Over in REAL Europe, Microsoft is doubling the capacity of its Azure cloud data centers in Germany by next year, specifically in Frankfurt, home of high-quality sausages. If you’re into that sort of thing. All of this investment in AI infrastructure is coming from Microsoft’s expectation that AI deployments will accelerate in 2024. 2023 was for learning and deploying the tech, and 2024 will be all about discovering and applying use cases.
• A good reminder that these AI breakthroughs also fall into the hands of the government—Microsoft is working hard to introduce AI to the public sector (which is fine for now since they aren’t doing anything). In a Q&A with Microsoft’s public sector leader, the interviewer states, “I understand Windows 11 offers a great deal of AI power to government employees” to which the interviewee affirms that yes, now government employees can ask for things in search bars. Raw, uncontrollable power.
• APAC and its 17 markets is the next destination in which AWS plans to invest its efforts.

New stuff

• AWS has released myApplications, a new cloud monitoring app that helps customers find ways to operate their workloads more cost-efficiently. They couldn’t have come up with a jazzier name, like Amazon MakeCents? So boring. And people will get confused. What if someone has to say, “Hey I have to look into my applications with myApplications” and their coworker is like “what?” and he has to keep repeating himself and it’s like the IT version of Who’s On First.
• After hinting that it would, AWS has finally lowered its free structure on AWS Marketplace, with a flat fee of 3%. It will be even lower for partners that have bigger private pricing agreements.
• Oracle has made its Database@Azure service generally available. It operates and manages Oracle Exadata Database Service, the first of several planned Oracle database services to run on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) in Azure datacenters. 
• AWS released Amazon S3 Express One Zone. It is “a new high-performance, single-zone Amazon S3 storage class purpose-built to deliver consistent, single-digit millisecond data access for customers’ most latency-sensitive applications.”
• AWS is adding four new capabilities to its supply chain offerings for the cloud in 2024 around sustainability, visibility, planning, and generative AI.
• AWS has also added 5 new capabilities to Amazon SageMaker, from reducing ML model deployment costs and latency to preparing data according to natural language instructions. And finally, AWS is updating AWS Clean Rooms with ML capabilities.
• Datadog is expanding security and observability support for AWS serverless apps built on AWS Lambda and AWS Step Functions.
• LaunchDarkly has opened early access to a feature that lets customers use Amazon Bedrock to experiment with AI.
• AMB Access Polygon, which provides serverless access to Polygon blockchain, is now in preview release.
• Microsoft is helping scientists do science things by integrating Copilot with Azure Quantum Elements. It will help researchers explore materials, speed up chemistry simulations, and experiment with existing quantum hardware. If a black hole opens up in your living room, it’s probably Microsoft’s fault.
• And some real cool science-y stuff: Microsoft is working on glass storage—like literally storing stuff in GLASS (click the link for a pic of…glass). It’s made from quartz glass and is primed for use in the cloud.
• Following a soft announcement in June, AWS has officially launched its Generative AI Center of Excellence to help partners build AI solutions. It has also expanded its AWS Advertising and Marketing Competency program to add more competencies in the category.
• Microsoft introduced Azure Integration Environments for public preview, which allows organizations to assemble their resources into logical groupings to manage and monitor their integration resources more effectively. If I were in charge my groupings would be named “crap,” “more crap,” “pics of my dog,” “here’s some other crap,” and so on because I don’t even know what an integration resource is.

Best Friends Forever

• Engineering management platform Jellyfish has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate program. So has Implicity, a remote patient monitoring and cardiac data management solution (aka all I want for Xmas).
• Trend Micro has achieved the AWS Built-In Competency in the Security and Cloud Operations category.
• Data access governance and security solution Theom (not to be confused with the traitor-redeemed-as-hero in GoT) has earned its AWS Security Software Competency.
• CalmWave, an AI for health operations company, is now on AWS Marketplace.
• AWS partnered with Hoppr (not the soft-hearted but brusk and unhealthy sheriff in Stranger Things), an AI startup, to launch a new foundation model that will help healthcare organizations use generative AI tools in medical imaging.
• ServiceNow and AWS also have a lil AI partnership going on—at least for the next five years. ServiceNow’s platform and full suite of solutions will be available on AWS Marketplace, and their first sales targets will be manufacturing, supply chain, call centers, and cloud transformation use cases.
• We already knew that Salesforce was going to make it easier for joint customers to access Salesforce data on AWS, but they announced specific plans at re:Invent. Salesforce is expanding its strategic partnership with AWS. Select Salesforce is now available on AWS Marketplace, and AWS will increase its own use of Salesforce. Back scratching all around.
• OneNeck an IT solutions provider, has achieved four Microsoft Solutions Partner designations as part of its membership in the AI Cloud Partner Program.
• Eviden, which helps businesses with their digital transformation, is collaborating (drink again, I didn’t forget but you may have at this point) with Microsoft to help clients move to the cloud to use Azure OpenAI Service. (And again, that counts.)
• Managed services provider Options Technology has earned its fifth Solutions Partner designation in Digital and App Innovation for Azure.
• Digital business services company Teleperformance, also known as whenever my sister calls me with her latest drama, has received its Microsoft Azure Solutions Partner designation for Data & AI.
• New to Azure Marketplace: bsure Insights, which sounds like a pregnancy test, helps customers optimize spend and reduce risk through insights into their Microsoft users and licenses.
• ForwardLane, an AI-powered decision intelligence platform for asset and wealth management, has attained Microsoft IP co-sell ready status and will engage in global GTM with the ‘soft.

By Melanie Hodgman

Image by Emily Zheng

In 2020, we traded commuting to the office for working in house slippers—and never looked back. But the new setup led us to ask: what will employee engagement and collaborative learning look like? One way we’ve answered that question is with in-person gatherings twice a year, including an all-team summer retreat.  

Company retreats can be logistically challenging and labor intensive to plan. However, the rewards can include improved interpersonal relationships and collective learning, making it worth the effort. And for marketing teams in particular, retreats provide a great opportunity to sharpen collaborative creativity. 

Here’s what we’ve learned so far about how to make a retreat worthwhile: 

Be intentional about cross-team collaboration 

Try retreat programming that includes small group projects. Intentionally select team members who will collaborate on a creative project outside of their typical work. Maybe your team has only done technology marketing and would enjoy the challenge of applying those skills to a nonprofit project for a day. Whatever it is, make sure it’s a scenario that is different from the industries you serve, but something to which employees can still transfer their skills. 

Ensure that these teams are a mix of departments, tenure, personalities, and seniority. Bringing employees together in this way will help them think critically and creatively while having fun. Sharing this experience supports familiarity with team members and can help them feel more comfortable working together once you return to virtual meetings. It also gives team members perspective on the challenges and excitement that come with roles different from their own. 

Provide opportunities for unstructured connections and downtime 

Don’t jam pack a retreat schedule with lectures and professional development only. There is value in scheduling downtime into programming and providing that essential balance of work and play. Equally important are the spaces in between sessions when folks catch up over meals, have a casual conversation on breaks, and spend time with co-workers they don’t interact with regularly.

The trick is finding the balance between the two. Set expectations ahead of time regarding how the days will flow to help your team members plan for the best use of their free time. For example, cap a day of team projects and presentations with an evening around a campfire, or break up the day’s agenda with a game. Weave in short ten-minute breaks for breathers so that employees don’t feel like they’re experiencing information overload.  

Start planning now!  

The best venues, especially if you’re planning a summertime retreat, are going to be booked well in advance. To find a venue with availability that matches your desired timing, amenities, accommodations, and budget, start looking at least 12 to 15 months ahead of time. Between wedding season and various festivities enticing people to travel, the best summer spots are likely to be taken if you wait too long. 

When considering a venue, think about the type of experience company leadership wants to create. Do you want a more remote setting for planned activities and the absence of distractions? Or would you prefer that employees engage in activities on their own, outside of structured sessions? Additionally, the time of the week is important. For example, we allot 48 hours for our retreat and have found that works best toward the end of the work week—it gives teams time to collaborate with clients and move projects forward before signing off for two days.  

You can find photos of our latest retreat on our Instagram, or get tips from our 2023 retreat session on constructive feedback. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

World domination 

• Amazon is promising Europe a sovereign cloud to meet the government requirements of EU companies. “Euro Cloud” has a mullet and wears acid wash jeans and is going to the discothèque like those people on the front of my old French textbook. And they have cigarettes for breakfast, all sovereign-like. 
• Microsoft is going to invest billions to expand its Mt. Pleasant data center in Wisconsin. And the company has bought 300 acres (and jobs) in Licking County. People with dry tongues need not apply. 
• When in Rome, build a data center. At least that’s the current motto at Microsoft. But this is Rome, Georgia, so put those pizza and spaghetti dreams away. Instead, you can dive into the local news, which is basically just obituaries, people stealing random shit, and an article about wild turkeys on the loose. God I love local news. 
• The three big cloud providers are investing almost $9B in Thailand, with AWS building a $5B data center there over the next 15 years. Do you know how much pad thai you can buy with $9B? NOT ENOUGH. THAT’S HOW MUCH. 
  • And Malaysia will be the next cloud region for AWS, following the opening of its Kuala Lumpur office. 
• One of China’s largest tech companies, Alibaba, has launched its own AI model in a bid to compete with AWS and Microsoft. It released its GenAI Service Platform which can be designed for industry-specific applications. 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• Consider this your warning that our robot overlords are closer than they’ve ever been. I, your loyal tech news troubadour, joins others in wanting to know exactly what the board at OpenAI saw that scared the shit out of them. Let me backtrack: It’s been one year since ChatGPT hit the scene, and after showing an AI breakthrough to OpenAI’s board, co-founder Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from the company over concerns about safety and regulations regarding this yet-to-be released evolution (called Q* or “Q Star”). Insiders say Altman didn’t want any power checks on him. Microsoft immediately snapped Altman up, prompting analysts to speculate that this “poker move” added $63B to Microsoft’s value. But WOMP WOMP a day later Altman went back to OpenAI, burning that bridge so badly there aren’t even ashes to show for it. Altman returned on the promise that a new board would be formed, potentially quelling an impending “all-out employee revolt.” Anyway, we’re all gonna die. 
• It’s a good thing Q* is distracting from what’s happening with AI at AWS. Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence Group (AIG) is “undergoing a significant restructuring” only four months after its inception. The department is now divided among six focus areas, according to a leaked email. 
• AND to compete with ChatGPT, Amazon is developing Olympus. But it’s super-secret. 
• After Google Cloud revenue came in below expectations, Alphabet stock fell almost 10%, marking its worst day since March 2020. It’s because Bing is wildly successful and rapidly stealing all the traffic. Just kidding, nobody uses Bing. Still. 

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• Hyundai has selected AWS as its cloud provider, so now Amazon is going to sell Hyundai cars. Does that come with Prime one-day delivery? If I don’t like it, do I return it at Whole Foods? If I’m not home when it arrives, will you just take a picture of an ENTIRE CAR PARKED ON MY FRONT STEP? We’ve entered a whole new era of regrettable drunk Amazon purchases. 
• AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle—among other notable tech companies—are creating a framework that will make cloud spend more transparent. Their first idea was to wrap cellophane around it but, no dice. 
• AI observability company WhyLabs has partnered with AWS to let shared customers switch to observability for AI apps through WhyLabs on AWS. 
• The SAP HANA cloud now supports AWS Graviton processors. 
• SnapLogic is collaborating with AWS to offer SnapGPT, a generative AI integration that will assist with data management. 
• Infosys and AWS are partnering in a joint go-to-market push to accelerate cloud adoption across the EMEA region, in particular to financial organizations. 
• Quantiphi has entered a strategic collaboration with AWS to use AWS generative AI tools, such as Bedrock and SageMaker, to power a generative AI platform for knowledge workers. Have you ever met somebody who said “I’m a knowledge worker”? Me neither. If you did, would you remain in the conversation? Me neither. 
• NetApp is extending its alliance (is this the UN?) with Microsoft to include tools for deploying workloads, improving performance, and reducing costs using ML. 

New stuff  

• AWS has launched a generative AI app builder for consumers called PartyRock. I wanna go to PartyRock! It sounds like a bunch of people dancing on boulders and I wanna be there. Or it could just be another name for meth. I don’t want THAT PartyRock. Anyway, it lets you build generative AI applications without any software experience. It’s “for entertainment purposes only”…I bet. 
• Did Microsoft pray to the gods of confused marketing with this? Spend hundreds of dollars for the Willy Wonka edition Xbox and get a…chocolate game controller. That doesn’t work.  
• Teams is getting crowded. New AI-powered features will allow the easily amused masses to decorate their Teams backgrounds. It will clean up the clutter in your background, and even add some seasonal objects and plants so you can go full-out white woman’s Instagram. 
• Let us revel in cups that overfloweth with chips. Following a global chip shortage, Microsoft has built its own custom AI chips, Maia 100 and Cobalt 100, hopefully breaking reliance on NVIDIA. Microsoft is also working with Synopsys, which is using Copilot to help with designing computer chips. 
  • But NVIDIA and Microsoft are still bros. NVIDIA launched a generative AI foundry service on Azure, which will help businesses build custom language learning models (LLMs). 
• Now generally available is Microsoft Fabric, an end-to-end SaaS analytics platform. 
• AWS now offers EC2 capacity blocks for ML.  
• Microsoft could generate $10B a year by 2026 with its 365 Copilot AI add-on. It has also updated Windows 11 to have Copilot. 
• And it unveiled a Copilot-based unified security solution, which combines Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, and the Security Copilot chatbot. 
• Copilot is in so many places I’m awaiting news that it now raises your children. Microsoft’s GitHub is offering a paid enterprise service tier that will assist developers’ work on internal source code. 
• MORE COPILOT…YOU CAN’T ESCAPE!! Siemens and Microsoft have co-developed Industrial Copilot to improve human-machine collaboration in manufacturing. 
• Want some AI skillzzzz? you can sign up for AI Ready, a series of eight free courses from AWS. 

Best Friends Forever 

• BP will use Microsoft Copilot to continue destroying the planet.  
• Schneider Electric is integrating Microsoft Azure OpenAI to generate code and text.  
• MongoDB and AWS are collaborating to optimize Amazon CodeWhisperer for applications built on MongoDB. 
• Spend management platform Ramp has integrated Copilot into its offerings. 
• Cohesity is working with Microsoft to help organizations respond to data loss in M365 faster. 
• New Relic has integrated its AI Monitoring solutions with Amazon Bedrock. 
• No-code business automation solution provider Pipefy is now on AWS Marketplace, along with Elastio’s Insights profile, which simplifies software risk assessment.  
• Zilla security has joined the AWS ISV program and has put its solution in AWS Marketplace. 
• Digital product engineering company Simform has achieved its AWS Migration Competency. 
• Forethought, an AI-first customer support automation platform, has joined the AWS APN and is now available in AWS Marketplace. 
• Last Yard, an in-store and omnichannel solutions provider, has achieved its AWS Retail Competency and joined the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. 

By Katy Nally

Image by Thad Allen

What’s better than donating to a charitable organization? Watching your donation tap into its mega superpowers!  

For three months this year, 2A’s giving group led a mega match effort to rally our 2A team and grow our donations to worthy causes. Essentially, 2A Hulk-ified its matching policy by not only matching donations, but also tacking on an extra donation when enough employees joined in. All told—through our donations, matches, and mega multipliers—we donated $3,300 to 23 organizations around the world.  

Here’s the plot: On 8/8, we needed eight intrepid employees to step up and make donations. And they did! Their actions first unlocked 2A’s standard match and then came our mega match multiplier, which was an additional donation made to an organization the group decided on—the Maui Food Bank. After that, the shockwaves of support only grew stronger. On 9/9, nine employees channeled their inner green giant, and 2A powered up that multiplier for another round of smashing good support. The Hulk effect resulted in an additional donation to the International Rescue Committee. And finally, 10/10 was the grand finale! Ten employees flexed their philanthropic muscles, and the donations went Hulktastic! Our final mega match multiplier went to World Central Kitchen.

All told, our donations left an impact that echoed like Hulk’s roar. 

As the giving season really gets underway this year, think about releasing your inner superpowers for the greater good.  

Need some giving inspiration? Here’s where the 2A team donated recently: 

• Black Mamas Matter
• Cornerstone Theater Company 
• Geeking Out Kids of Color 
• Hawaii People’s Fund 
• INELDA 
• John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital 
• Lange Foundation 
• Magen David Adom in Israel 
• March of Dimes Foundation 
• NorCal Resist 
• Palestine Children’s Relief Fund 
• Rebuilding Exchange 
• Seeding Sovereignty a Project of Earth Island Institute 
• Southern Coalition for Social justice 
• Special Olympics 
• Survival International 
• UMOM New Day Center 
• United Hatzalah of Israel 
• University of Miami Miller School of Medicine 
• Women’s Medical Fund 

By Kelly Schermer, Katy Nally

Image by Emily Zheng

Ask any major player in the cloud space about partners, and they’ll tell you a robust partner network is key to success. But for smaller tech companies, the value of partnering up isn’t always clear. Sometimes it can look like you’re giving away too much to your competitors, or making an investment that will take a long time to pay off.  

At 2A, we extoll the value of partnerships at least 10 times a day—building messaging guides, playbooks, case studies, pitch decks, and ebooks that illustrate how customers benefit from a better-together scenario. That is to say, we know a good partner program when we see it.  

Take, for instance, Hikari. The company formed as a spin-off from Ireland-based EMIT to help customers get more value out of their data. The secret to Hikari’s skyrocketing success wasn’t only its bet on low-code technology. It was Founder and Executive Chairman Eamon Moore’s vision for a partner network that launched Hikari into the big leagues.  

Moore’s first introduction to a new partner paradigm happened after EMIT won the Microsoft Global Partner of the Year for SMB Cloud Solutions in 2016. “It opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about partner networks. Here was a global group of companies interested in helping each other out—acting as a sounding board for one another. These discussions inspired myself and the team to think about how to adapt to new trends, and they provided tremendous insight into where we could deliver value to each other,” Moore said. 

Once Hikari spun off from EMIT, it partnered with ProcessUs, a firm specializing in Microsoft Power Apps across Ireland and the Netherlands. The companies worked together to deliver low-code solutions that pulled different sources into the Power BI dashboards Hikari built, giving customers better visibility into their data at the touch of a button.  

Business took off. There was clear value in combining the skills of both companies to help customers get more from their cloud data. Then Hikari decided to double down and bring Power Apps capabilities in house. The firm acquired ProcessUs, and the combined team set out to scale the new and improved Hikari.

From his work at EMIT, Moore knew many SMB customers view their Modern Work partner as a trusted IT advisor. While a particular partner might focus on cloud migration or security, their customers still ask them about everything technology related—from a photocopier to a PC to AI. Which puts a lot of pressure on small partners. “At the end of the day, if you try to be a jack of all trades, you’ll be the master of none,” said Moore. “It’s critical to do what you do really well and stick to it—especially when you’re a company our size.”  

Moore reached out to Microsoft and pitched the idea of setting up Hikari to serve Modern Work resellers. Under his proposed model, resellers would work with Hikari to determine if a low-code solution would help achieve their customer’s business objectives. If so, Hikari would support the partner with customer education and solution development.  

Microsoft introduced Hikari to TD SYNNEX, a distributor of IT products and services, that serves thousands of partners across Western Europe. Together they created a P2P model serving resellers who act as the trusted advisors of SMB organizations. Hikari started by helping TD SYNNEX partners with low-code workshops, assessments, proofs of concept, and service development. Over time, it has pivoted to offering a Power Platform Centre of Excellence for partners to ramp up their low-code skills.  

“We believe in the power of the network—the partner network, the Microsoft network, the distributor network,” Moore said. “We all have important, strategic customers that we want to hang on to. We don’t want a competitor knocking on their door and selling them on the idea that they can do everything while we can’t. Partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships help you maintain your existing customer relationships and increase your status as a trusted advisor by bringing in great partners to round out your offerings.” 

Hikari is just one of many companies out there that has created a flourishing partner network. For an overview on how to grow your own B2B technology partner program, download our guide.  

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• Hi, welcome to weirdo upside-down world where Amazon is about to become its No. 1 competitor’s biggest customer (by a long shot). No, you are not tripping on shrooms like an Alaska Airlines pilot, this is real.  
• The Mayo Clinic is testing generative AI applications with its clinical staff through Microsoft’s 365 Copilot early access program. This news comes at the same time as Microsoft’s announcement of new tools in Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI for healthcare organizations. 
• Accenture and AWS have teamed up to create the Accenture AWS Business Group and the launch of Velocity, a “continuous innovation engine.”  
• Microsoft has FINALLY closed the Activision Blizzard deal and I am so happy to never have to write about this again.  
• World Energy, a producer of sustainable aviation fuel (that’s a thing?), signed a long-term agreement with Microsoft to….geez, the press release doesn’t even tell you, really. But if I had to read between the lines, it sounds like Microsoft will use World Energy to fuel executive private jets between Seattle and NYC. But let us never utter the term “private jet” lest the masses catch on to our tomfoolery. 

World domination 

• Microsoft is building a data center in Aragon, Spain, which looks like it just got added to my travel bucket list…especially because the region JUST WON THE SPANISH PIG AWARDS!!! Yes, Aragon has the best-performing pig farms, and is now holder of the “Porc d’Or” award. As published in Pig Progress Magazine. I’m serious. ::Subscribes:: 
• AWS is opening a development center in Nairobi to create software development and cloud support. The region has been dubbed the “Silicon Savannah,” which could also be the term for the space between two breast implants, but OK. 
• In one of the biggest news events to happen in Wales is the building of a Microsoft data center. It’s located in Newport—you know Newport—the city right next to Croesymwyalch, not far from Cwmbran and Llanfrechta. Yeah, that one. Hopefully, this news doesn’t get drowned out by recent local headlines such as the reopening of a local mini supermarket and inspectors’ praise for the local nursery, Tiny Tots. 
• Microsoft just laid off nearly 700 employees at LinkedIn, primarily in the engineering department. And it will now ramp up hiring in India. Classic move. Maybe that switcheroo will help them pay off the $29B they owe in back taxes. Yeah, I said it. Cash me ousside. 
• India is HOT and I don’t just mean it’s 130 degrees there at night. I mean everyone wants a piece. In addition to Microsoft’s hiring spree in the world’s most populated country, the government is unveiling digital health IDs with AWS. Biometrics in government hands? I can’t see any potential issues with that.  
• And India’s HCLSoftware is collaborating with AWS so customers can consume the HCLSoftware portfolio as cloud-native services/SaaS in AWS.  

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

• AWS, Google, and Telegram have been targeted by a malware campaign that uses “typosquatting” and “starjacking,” both of which sound like martial arts moves that could mess you up. Also, I hope it happens to me just so I can say “DAMN IT, I’VE BEEN STARJACKED!!!” 
• The AI technology that Microsoft has been pushing is also, apparently, helping hackers hit their victims harder.  
• But don’t confuse that with the campaign that attackers are conducting on SQL Server instances. And if you’re still into SQL Server after that, then you’ll be happy about the public preview of Azure SQL Database free offering. Get hacked—for free!! 
• AND Google, AWS, and Cloudflare saw the largest DDoS attack in their history. None of the articles name the hacking group, which makes me mad because I want to see how cool their name is. But anyway, Google saw 398 million requests per second, otherwise known as whenever I am trying to relax and my son is home. The DDoS graph looks like a Silicon Savannah ifyouknowwhatImean. 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• Satya Nadella is blaming Google for the fact that nobody uses Bing in a federal antitrust trial against Google. To get out from under Google’s hold on search, Microsoft told Apple it would pay billions to replace Google on Apple devices.  
• And funny story: Bing Chat is under fire for security concerns. It’s crawling with malicious ads. It’s Google’s fault!!! 
• Despite that hot mess, Microsoft posted 13% YoY sales growth in its last quarter earnings, beating expectations and adding to an overall “comeback” of tech. 
• It’s a good week for anyone who owns Amazon stock, once again driven by AWS. CEO Andy Jassy says the success of AWS belongs to its work in generative AI with solutions like Amazon Bedrock. And, AWS sales went up 12% YoY. 
• Sdx Central says the top three cloud providers are “battling” for the data center market. The article comes with a fantastical rendering of a city full of data centers on fire, bombarded by planes. (“Midjourney, show me a battle for data centers.”) This reminds me of those Army recruiting commercials that used to show before movies, where they made it look like if you joined you’d be fighting some superpower on a planet with three moons.  
• A Microsoft VP who has been with the company for decades is now moving to Amazon, overseeing devices and services. His name is Panos Panay, which I have been repeating to myself for fun all morning. First I pretended I was a caterer at a nice event with a silver tray of apps and I ask people all fancy, “May I interest you in some Panos Panay?” and then I was offering someone advice and turned it into a Latin saying …”Well, you know what they say – Panos Panay.” 
• Or maybe it will help them spend $3.2B in a “charm offensive” in Australia to push AI and cloud. Australia is currently looking to regulate AI.  

New stuff  

• The Microsoft Azure Incubation team has launched Radius, a platform that lets developers collaborate on building cloud-native applications. In typical Microsoft fashion, this announcement opens with a 43-word sentence. 
• AWS has launched its Process Optimization solution, which uses AI and ML to provide engineers with insights on downstream and midstream operations.  
• New to Microsoft Viva is Skills, which will help organizations understand workforce skills and gaps and then deliver personalized learning to close those gaps through Viva Learning. 
• I hope you powerful people like getting codes by text and email because AWS is going to require highest-privilege users to complete MFA starting next year. See, this is where it’s good to be a nobody. 
• Amazon DataZone has become generally available. Users can catalog, discover, share, and govern data stored across AWS, on-premises, and third-party sources. 

Best Friends Forever 

• Microsoft is partnering with AV provider Legrand to create a hybrid conference space for Microsoft Teams Rooms. These will be Signature Teams Rooms and probably look like EVERY OTHER MEETING ROOM. Look people, a work meeting is a work meeting. Fetch is never gonna happen. 
• Immuta, which sounds like the Italian phrase for “I’ve turned the sound off on the TV,” has integrated its Data Fabric Security with AWS. 
• IBM is set to train 10,000 consultants on AWS generative AI services. Sounds like a blast. 
• Our friends at Databricks are now listed in AWS Marketplace for the US Intelligence Community. Now incompetence can be data-driven. 
• Global professional services firm Genpact is partnering with AWS to fight financial crime with generative AI. The two will message financial criminals using an AI chatbot that says, “Are you SURE you want to do this? It’s really bad and not nice.” 
• Tenovos, a digital asset management firm, has achieved its AWS Retail Competency. The company has proved it can shop til it drops and find the best deals on designer wear.  
• Technology consulting firm Credera has earned its AWS Migration Competency.  
• Data protection company Commvault has joined the AWS Workload Migration Program (WMP). 
• Duality Technologies has joined the AWS Partner Network. It provides secure data center collaboration. 
• Roadway intelligence firm Rekor has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. 
• Dubai-based Superbo, an AI solutions provider, is partnering with Microsoft to deploy Azure OpenAI across the African continent. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

New stuff  

• Oooooh Mesh for Teams in public preview! You’ll need a Teams Premium account to create your Metaverse. It is very meta—we roleplay at work already, so now we will roleplay our roleplay. Whatever it takes to bring bongos to an earnings call.  
• And the new Azure Update Manager, a SaaS solution for managing software updates on Windows and Linux machines across Azure, is now generally available. 
• AWS launched EC2 R7iz instances, which offer a high CPU performance for intense workloads (do these workloads look like Kristen Stewart in every Twilight movie?). Nah, think simulations and electronic design. It also launched AWS Private CA Connector for Active Directory, which lets customers…do something more complicated than I care to explain here.   
• Who cares about the ousted Speaker of the House when there’s a new AWS Competency in town?? AWS Partners can now earn a Telecommunications Competency, which includes key areas like communications as a service (CaaS) and business support systems (BSS). 
• Telecom is so hot right now, says AWS, because the industry is “eagerly embracing” generative AI through an identified 17 use cases. 
• Amazon Bedrock, which is not the jungle version of the Flintstone’s world but instead a solution that plays a major role in the AWS AI strategy, is now generally available—along with a few other AI innovations. 
• Dell has launched APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, making them the first MSFT partner in the cloud provider’s Premier Solutions for Azure Stack HCI category. 
• Are you a gigantic company? Do you want Microsoft 365 Copilot to supplement your core productivity apps? Congrats, it’s here for you. 
• Microsoft has unloaded some new generative AI tools for the advertising industry. 

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• IT solutions giant Infosys is partnering with Microsoft to meld their AI capabilities as a way to “lead the generative AI revolution.” Thanks for the specifics, I can’t wait to see the results of whatever you didn’t say you’re doing. 
• Build Your Own Lake (BYOL) is a new part of the expanded partnership between AWS and Salesforce. It lets customers infuse AWS AI-centered services like Amazon SageMaker through Salesforce’s Einstein Trust Layer and unify Salesforce Data Cloud with AWS data-centric services like Amazon Redshift. 
• AWS and Cloudera signed an agreement that allows the Cloudera Cloud Platform to integrate directly with AWS services. Cloudera will also build all its generative AI stuff on AWS. 
• And then (a lil’ late to the party) Oracle says it wants to form multi-cloud agreements with Salesforce, AWS, Workday, and every other major cloud app. This article has some pretty interesting takes from Larry Ellison.  
• The biggest AWS news to grace our media-overloaded brains is Amazon’s $4B investment in Anthropic AI, an AI safety and research company. In exchange, AWS gets partial ownership and will be Anthropic’s primary cloud provider. Anthropic will also use Amazon’s AI chips. Cute! 
• Of related interest is this Q&A with Diya Wynn, the responsible AI lead at AWS. 
• There’s a healthcare system called Mercy. Literally that’s the whole name. And they’re partnering with Microsoft to use AI to “lighten the load” on healthcare employees. The two are exploring more than four dozen mercy-packed uses of AI to transform care experiences for patients and employees. If I were in charge of marketing, the slogan would be “Have Mercy” and the logo would be Uncle Jesse’s face.   
• And Accenture is helping New York’s Mount Sinai Health System move to Azure. 
• Oracle is expanding its deal with Microsoft and will co-locate Oracle’s Exadata database-optimized server and Real Application Clusters in Microsoft Azure data centers. Why does Oracle remind me of the roommate who said no to takeout but then when yours arrives they want to know if you’ll split it with them?  
• Sports gaming company FanDuel is further moving its operations to AWS to “support…millions of simultaneous players as they place bets…” If that’s not critical societal innovation, I don’t know what is. 
• Application software security platform Contrast Security now integrates with AWS Security Hub. This will allow customers to address security concerns before their apps are deployed. So I guess Microsoft won’t be using it. 
• Mission Cloud, a managed cloud services provider and AWS Premier Tier Partner (they get a free drink in first class), signed a collab with AWS to develop the consulting firm’s data, analytics, ML, and generative AI solutions on AWS. 
• Cloud-based remote monitoring and management company Atera has launched a new AI-powered IT suite with Microsoft Azure Open AI. 
• Every day is Earth Day for KPMG and Microsoft, who will jointly release a new educational platform on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). 
• Cloud connectivity company Cloudflare is collaborating with Microsoft to make it easier for companies to run AI in the location of their choice. I don’t mean, like, the snack kitchen. I mean like on networks and stuff. 
• In finance, Finastra announced it would modernize its trade platform using a microservices architecture on Azure.   

World domination 

• British banking and insurance company NatWest group is partnering with AWS to accelerate the use of generative AI. The two will co-create responsible AI products using Amazon Bedrock as part of NatWest’s new AWS Generative AI Innovation Center. 
• I swear to god the EU is just going down the list of Microsoft products one by one—they are now scrutinizing the Teams Video app. Did an American Microsoft person cut their spaghetti with a knife or something? Try to speak French in France? Say they were vegetarian in Greece? Show up 10 seconds late for a meeting in Germany? Geez… 
• On the topic of Germany: Deutsche Telekom unveiled the commercial availability of a full-stack private 5G network service that rides on Azure’s private multi-access edge compute (MEC) platform. 
• Two companies from the two biggest oil producers in the world are screaming “sustainability now!” so it must be legit. Saudi Arabian business Abdul Latif Jameel has selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider and in turn will provide AWS with clean energy capacity via solar in Spain.   
• Also, Amazon got permission to plan three new data centers in north Dublin to which a group called Friends of the Earth, Not Here Not Anywhere said the projects would increase the country’s emissions. The government was like no, you’re wrong. And then the resistance group was like, no, we’re actually right because we did the math, we got receipts. And then the government was like, that’s nice we like money, byyyyeeee.  

Gossip (for nerds) 

• Jeff Bezos is still worth more than OpenAI. But we’ll see how long that lasts now that OpenAI is launching ChatGPT Enterprise, which offers enterprise-grade privacy and security, advanced data analysis, and a longer context window. Some of the money will pay for lawsuits, which may be straining the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI. 
• AI uses a lot of water and energy, and there is only so much to go around (unless you’re Coca Cola in which case they’ll just let your crops die because you know what helps distract from hunger? A nice cold coke). For this reason, Microsoft is considering nuclear energy. 

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

• A Chinese hacker stole 60,000 emails from 10 U.S. State Department accounts thanks to a flaw that let the hacker improperly use an Azure Active Directory key. And then another flaw led the key to not even be detected. So, in short, we’re doing real good.  
• This is a Microsoft news update so we all know there was going to be more than one security problem. And maybe if they didn’t force people into the new Teams I’d be nicer about it, but what’s done is done. Microsoft AI researcher exposed terabytes of sensitive data on GitHub; the data included two of Microsoft employees’ entire workstations. 
• On the plus side, GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps is now generally available LMAAAOOOOOO. 

Best Friends Forever 

• MSFT:  
  • New to Azure Marketplace are CGI’s All Payments solution; LeapXpert’s Communication Platform; and Lightbits’ Cloud Data Platform. 
  • ECS is now a solution partner in three designated areas: Azure Infrastructure, Digital & App Innovation, and Data & AI. 

• AWS: 
  • Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform—otherwise known as the kit my husband bought two years ago and still hasn’t touched but insists he will—has joined the AWS Partner Network to assist customers in industrial and commercial sectors deliver enterprise-grade Arduino products. Arduino Cloud has run on AWS infrastructure for the last three years. 
  • SequenceShift earned AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency and TCS achieved AWS Automotive Competency. 
  • New to AWS Marketplace: Veriff, a global identity verification provider; Contentful’s Composable Content Platform; Bright Security’s Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) scanner; MixMode’s Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) for AWS; and IRONSCALES (they don’t have to yell!), a cloud email security solution.  
  • Tray.io, which offers a platform for generating money-making AI content, is now an AWS APN member. Its platform is also available in AWS Marketplace. 
  • Ripcord, which offers a document intelligence as a service (DIaaS) platform, has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate program. 

Miscellany 

• You have until 2025 to say your goodbyes to Azure Database MariaDB. 
• AWS has selected 13 tech startups to be part of its first GovTech accelerator, which will provide cloud support for businesses focused on criminal justice and public safety. Prisoners will be able to see which color uniforms best compliment their skin tones using an AI-powered filter. 

By Nora Bright

Image by Julianne Medenblik

The economic environment is still slow, and many companies are in a hiring freeze. If you’re thinking about hiring but not sure about making the commitment, bringing a new teammate on through a consulting or staffing agency could be a smart choice! Below are a few considerations to decide if an agency is your best bet. 

Go in-house 

You have a certain, long-term need. Hiring in-house is a great route if you need someone for the long haul and have the budget to support them. Once you train an in-house employee, you get to keep their knowledge within the organization, whereas a consultant is likely to move on more quickly. 

You want a transferable skillset. Even if you’re just hiring for a project or short-term need, it’s possible the person you bring into the organization may have a valuable skillset that can be used elsewhere in the organization. For example, if you’re bringing on a data analyst to evaluate the efficiency of your digital ads spending, there are likely other initiatives or programs where they could apply their skills. 

Your team has the bandwidth to support interviews. Hiring can be time-intensive for you and anyone else sitting in on interview loops. If you go in-house, make sure your teams have the capacity to meet candidates and participate in multiple interviews. 

You can wait a while. An FTE hiring process can take weeks to months, but can be worth the time and effort to find your long-term candidate. If you don’t have an immediate need—and can wait a while before the position is filled—going through the process in-house makes sense.  

Call up the experts and use a consulting agency 

You have a short-term need. If you need help with a quick project, hiring a temporary teammate through an agency can be a great option. You can skip a lengthy recruiting and interview process that might be overkill for a short-term role, and get someone started ASAP. Plus, your agency handles the  vetting process for you to save you the effort. 

You need a specialized skillset. Even in this labor market where employers have an upper hand, it can be a challenge to find someone with a specialized skillset. This is especially true in our world of marketing and creative roles, where motion designers, video editors, or marketing analysts may be hard to track down. An agency that specializes in your industry or function will have experienced talent ready to go for even hard-to-find skillsets. 

You’re in a pinch. Need someone, like, yesterday? Working with a consulting agency is going to be a lot faster than going through the typical in-house hiring process. You can skip the legwork of sifting through hundreds of resumes, emailing back and forth with candidates, and setting up loops with your team.  

You want to try before you buy. Whether you have an open role that’s hard to fill, or you want to work with someone before making a long-term commitment, a consulting agency is a great option for you. Most agencies offer a temp-to-hire option if you’re impressed with your consultant and want to keep them on for the long haul. If they’re not a fit, the consulting agency can find you a replacement quickly. 

Want to learn more about what a consulting agency can offer? 

2A’s Embedded Consulting practice matches tech industry clients with top-notch marketing, creative, and program management talent. Our superior employee experience and benefits put people first—and attract the best talent in tech. Learn more about our EC practice or get in touch. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

Gossip (for nerds)

• NVIDIA chips have become a hotter item than black market kidneys as companies “go to extreme lengths” to remedy the GPU shortage. In response, AWS is promoting its own AI chips and the adoption of Amazon Bedrock, which bakes chip needs into the offering. Meanwhile Microsoft is offering refunds to customers who curb their GPU usage.
• If you don’t want to return to the Amazon office then get ready to like government cheese. Andy Jassey said that employees should forget about the Amazon mantra of “disagree and commit” for leadership’s push to return to soul-sucking cubicle life. This message was delivered in the bravest of fashions using the good old pre-recorded session.
• SAP’s new global head of AI was previously the Microsoft VP of AI for the business and application platform group. She has a PhD from MIT…how mid.
• A shake-up may be coming to the AWS Partner program. The cloud giant teased changes to partner-to-partner engagement and AWS Marketplace in relation to generative AI. I actually know about one of these changes and while I don’t have a PhD from MIT, I did major in KEEPING SECRETS at life university with a weighted GPA of 4.18.
• Microsoft has changed its policy to allow customers to use Microsoft 365 on Amazon WorkSpaces. Why such a big licensing change now? The report speculates that the move may be a result of pressure from large customers and the EU’s ongoing examination of anti-competitive practices. Amazon WorkSpaces is on a shortlist of software that can now run on Microsoft 365, leaving other big firms, like VMware, to ask when it will be their turn.
• AWS has hired two new executives to its senior leadership team, one for AI and one for EC2 (the third is for Amazon, check out her amazing profile here).
• The whole “I’ll patch it in two years, MAYBE” security approach that Microsoft has had over the years is not flying with customers anymore, including the federal government. A mounting number of infosec professionals and vendors are getting loud about Microsoft’s lack of transparency, lack of urgency, and increasing occurrence of security issues. It’s gotten to the point where the US Department of Homeland Security has opened an investigation into Microsoft’s handling of a major attack on its Azure cloud infrastructure. This will definitely hurt the cloud company’s attempt to position itself as a cybersecurity leader.
• It’s rumored that Google plans to release its contender to OpenAI’s GPT-4, Gemini, this fall.
• More people with a 1.7 GPA in keeping secrets: Microsoft is planning to start selling a new version of Databricks software that helps customers make AI apps for businesses.
  

World domination

• Africa: AWS opened its first international AWS Skills Center in Cape Town, South Africa. It offers free training to help people move into cloud careers. And startups from six African countries have been chosen to participate in a boot camp run by AWS and Harvard Innovation Labs’ NextGen Accelerator. 25 Black-led startups were selected in total, with founders from U.S. HBCUs also in the cohort.
• Asia: AWS APJ is tapping Korean startups to be part of its six-week-long Generative AI Accelerator program. And AWS debuted a new Dedicated Local Zone in Singapore, which will help organizations in the public sector and regulated industries meet regulatory standards.
• Europe: Finland’s Savings Bank Group is moving all of its data and systems to Azure. Boring news from a boring country. I love you Finland, but you are not the Friday nights of countries!

New stuff

• AWS introduced HealthImaging, a HIPAA-eligible service that lets healthcare providers store, analyze, and share medical imaging data at scale. Wait, so I can just…get images? You’re saying, AWS, that I don’t have to call up my old neurologist at NYU and request my brain MRI only to be told I have to make the request in person, so I fly to New York City, sign a release waiver, wait two days, go to pick it up only to find out my other doctor needs it in a different format, then fly back to NYC again, except this time the front desk tells me oh sorry that lady you spoke to was new, we no longer provide imaging in that format anymore and then I just, I dunno, die?
• AWS wants to teach its healthcare customers and partners in Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean how to build solutions. It will do this through its pilot of AWS Industry Quest: Healthcare, which sounds a lot like you’ll be playing Tomb Raider instead of developing apps.
• Microsoft feels like the one thing missing from this world is another male voice, so it added one to its Azure AI Text to Speech tool.
• AWS launched an EC2 service powered by custom Intel Xeon Scalable processors, otherwise known as Sapphire Rapids.
• Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Azure Operating Nexus for telcos. The explanation of what it does is a real snooze fest and my workday ends in 15 minutes so you’ll have to go without.
• In its ongoing love letter to startups, AWS has unveiled AWS Build, a global program meant to help early-stage startups get their ideas off the ground.
• Can’t leave frontline and shift workers out of the Copilot revolution. It must be high on their list of must-haves, well above cost of living pay raises and sick days, for sure. Fret not field service workers because now there’s a preview of Copilot in Dynamics 365 just for you.

Wheelin’ and dealin’

• Are DDoS days the new snow days? Cyberattacks have increasingly led to lost learning in K-12 schools, so AWS has pledged $20M in grants for cybersecurity resiliency efforts in education. This is part of the White House’s increased federal support for school cybersecurity.
• Digital pathology provider Paige has teamed up with Microsoft to build the world’s largest image-based AI intelligence model for identifying cancer.
• AWS has announced that its Service Catalog now supports HashiCorp Terraform Cloud. This facilitates self-service provisioning with governance so that developers don’t have to wait on cranky IT folks to set their shiz up.
• BMW chose AWS as the platform on which it will develop its next-gen driver assistance system, set to launch in 2025. Qualcomm will also play a role in development.
  • Separately, Qualcomm is touting its growing influence in the automotive sector, including a strategic partnership with AWS.
• Microsoft and AI startup Synthetaic are working together to analyze data from space and air sensors. This was the same company that independently tracked the Chinese spy balloon, something that was on my shortlist of Halloween costumes but is now too obscure.
• Aptos, a blockchain platform developed by a former Facebook employee (I bet it’s a GREAT place for women to work), is partnering with Microsoft to bring AI to blockchain. That includes building tools to help banks explore blockchain on Azure.
• EVERYBODY AND THEIR MOTHERS are helping businesses accelerate AI adoption:
  • LeanIX, which sells a transformation platform that helps companies with visibility and governance, has partnered with Microsoft to launch LeanIX Assistant. The press release goes on to say it’s the first of its kind, but I’m gonna spoiler alert you and let you know that it’s not.
  • IBM Consulting is helping clients implement and scale Azure OpenAI Service. It will guide businesses in defining an adoption strategy and identify use cases.
  • AWS has “let me show you how to use this thing” collabs too! HCLTech will help AWS customers adopt AI using AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon CodeWhisperer.
  • And government modernization facilitator CACI struck a deal with AWS to help the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and law enforcement use AI to do things like share sensitive data to generate insights. SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA.
  • IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl is working with Microsoft to launch an AI-readiness program that will enable the ethical adoption of enterprise AI solutions.

Miscellany

• Have you ever offered to do something for somebody, and as soon as it came out of your mouth you were like, why did I just offer to do that? That’s Microsoft this week after saying it will accept liability for any customer’s copyright infringement over material generated by its AI software! The idea is to get more people comfortable with using the software. This applies exclusively to paying customers of GitHub Copilot, which creates computer code with generative AI, as well as Microsoft 365 Copilot, which applies AI to products including Word, Teams, and PowerPoint.
• Amazon has acquired Fig, a startup that produces tools to assist developers. It will be folded into AWS.
• Microsoft has ended unlimited storage for OneDrive business plans because you can never have too much money. It’s also ended Windows support for Cortana in favor of focusing on Copilot.
• AWS is ending its low-code Honeycode service. The end-of-life announcement drew only six replies from customers. Is this like when Phish announced they were retiring in 2004?
• Another reason why Europe offers a better quality of life: Microsoft will stop forcing Windows 11 users into the Edge browser.

Best Friends Forever

• New to Microsoft Azure Marketplace:
  • Globalgig’s Orchestra platform, which helps businesses manage global network services.
  • DeskConnect, an AI/ML solution that extracts and analyzes text from documents, including handwritten ones. I know a former president who hates to read but loves documents who would have liked that about a year ago.
• Red Hat OpenShift for the U.S. Intelligence Community is now available in AWS Marketplace. It will help the government innovate while also maintaining stringent security. Both of those things are new concepts to the government, so take ‘er nice and slow there guys. Also new to AWS Marketplace:
  • SOCi, which offers a platform that helps multi-location enterprises employ automation tools and data management to drive customer engagement.
  • Outreach, an AI-powered sales execution platform.
• PingSafe, a CNAPP provider, has joined the AWS ISV Accelerator and so has ComplyAdvantage, a financial crime intelligence company.
• Alfa, a finance software provider, joined the AWS Partner Network after passing the technical review.
• HashiCorp has joined Microsoft’s Intelligence Security Association.
• Consulting firm Protiviti earned its AI and ML specialization from Microsoft.
• Data science and AI solutions provider Tredence has achieved its AWS Service Delivery designation for Amazon EMR and Amazon RDS. Analytics company SAS achieved AWS Digital Customer Experience Competency. Onebeat, which provides AI-enabled supply chain solutions for retailers, was awarded the AWS Retail Competency. And Zero Trust company Netskope earned its Security Competency status in the Infrastructure Protection category.