Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
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In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I take a look at Microsoft’s new program for current on-prem customers, AIM.
Highlights
00:20 — I’m happy to see that Microsoft has launched a program, AIM (Accelerate, Innovate, and Move) to help guide its applications customers from on-prem into the cloud. You can’t participate in the wild new game of generative AI, Microsoft says, if you are on-prem.
01:26 — Elements of the program include migration advisors, expert assessments, and a number of go-to-market programs. Microsoft said it wants AIM to guide on-premise business app customers into the area of AI-guided productivity.
02:41 — This is interesting in the context of SAP’s Rise program, launched about two and a half years ago. I’ve just been baffled why none of the other big tech companies, particularly the applications companies, have come out with similar programs. This offering from Microsoft coincides perfectly with what it’s doing with Copilot for Dynamics 365 and a whole range of Dynamics products that were not specifically built for the cloud. It is a simple migration path.
03:20 — It’s certainly in the interest of Microsoft but also very much for their customers. With AIM, Microsoft has given those small and mid-sized customers a lot of programs to be able to move from on-prem into the cloud.
04:04 — This is going to be very successful. I think it’s going to trigger some of the other applications companies to come up with similar programs in line with what SAP has done.
