Microsoft starts the hard sell on Windows 10, with security the main focus

What, it’s not released yet?! 

No, but in a peek at what is to come in a couple of weeks time, Microsoft presented its hard line slogan at the launch of WPC in Orlando on Monday this week. They are about to push very hard to get us all using Windows 10 across every device.  

That falls in line with the end of 2003 Server support, which ended this week on July 14. RIP 2003. Long live the cloud. 

There are lots of upgraded versions of applications and servers on the way too. Exchange 2016, SharePoint 2016 and so many more. 

The winds of change are blowing strongly at Microsoft and it would seem that the business world is once again paying attention to what Microsoft are doing.  

In the Keynote presentation at the Microsoft World partner conference, there were way too many Microsoft products discussed to mention here. 

The key message was that Microsoft is back. Last year they called themselves a challenger brand but that message has been replaced with we are back and you better pay attention. 

Cyber Security was one of the big areas mentioned and they are making it clear that the only way to stay ahead of the cyber attackers is to be on the latest version of Windows with the latest patches and upgrades applied. Security seems to be a strong motivator for change. The risks and costs associated with losses to cyber-attacks is too high to ignore this any longer. The attackers they say have moved from broad attacks to very targeted personal attacks using social engineering and phishing attacks. 

Windows 10 offers some great new encryption solutions that make it possible to really get control of data and ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands. Microsoft are listening to where the threats are coming from and are responding to build more and more secure systems that are simple to manage. 

Of course there are also lots of business productivity tools coming on line with better collaboration and communication options so we can keep driving better value creation in our businesses. 

Microsoft are very clear that the businesses that innovate around these new technologies to do more with less in their businesses and to offer new products and services at competitive price points will dominate the market place in every industry over the next few years. As I sat in the presentation, I came to the conclusion that it is time to stop pushing the laggards to update and work with the innovators who want to drive the value that can be created. 

I can’t sign off without a mention of the IoT as the numbers presented by industry analysts were that by 2020 we can expect to have 25 billion devices connected to the internet of things (IoT) and that the revenue generated by the industry would be $7 trillion. That is a lot of things to be measured and reported on that we currently need to inspect manually or don’t inspect at all. It is a brave new world for that crazy stuff but there are many fortunes to be made from it both as a seller and integrator but also as a business to get better measurement across your machinery.  

There is plenty of work for innovators and a distinct lack of trained up resources to deliver solutions. This next 10 years could be the biggest IT boom we have ever faced with an impact on productivity almost as big as the industrial revolution.

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that is known for Business IT that makes sense. How can we help?