The opportunities and challenges in the changing IT landscape

Ingram Micro Cloud’s Intelligent Future of Cloud Roadshow: the opportunities and challenges in the changing IT landscape

Alex Parkinson, Enterprise Identity and Endpoint Technical Lead at Comms-care, shares his key takeaways from Ingram Micro Cloud’s Intelligent Future of Cloud Roadshow.

I recently had the pleasure of co-presenting at Ingram Micro Cloud UK’s Intelligent Future of Cloud Roadshow, alongside Rob Darby, Commercial Director at Comms-care and Guy Gregory, Partner Technology Strategist at Microsoft. This highlights perfectly the strength of the Comms-care-Microsoft-Ingram Micro relationship and how as a combined unit we can drive great value back into the reseller community.

The session delivered some key messages in terms of the challenges IT professionals will face through 2019 (and well into 2020), along with the potential opportunities these challenges bring.

Key takeaways to share include:

• The IT landscape as we know it is changing, driving a need for a refreshed and modernised approach to both IT management and the services provided to our end users
• Modernisation is seeing a shift in how traditional IT-based projects are being delivered, with a far greater emphasis on driving user adoption
• The power of the cloud is becoming more fundamental as businesses are striving to provide better and more efficient services through automation, analytics and artificial intelligence
• The following dates will see end of support being introduced for some core Microsoft products:
  • 9^th July 2019 brings end of support for SQL Server 2008/2008R2
  • 14^th January 2020 brings end of support for:- Windows Server 2008/2008R2- Exchange Server 2010-  Windows 7
• 13^th October 2020 brings end of support for Microsoft Office 2010 along with a new Microsoft enforcement that will restrict Office 365 service connectivity to only those versions of Microsoft Office within mainstream support

In summary, while the IT landscape is changing at an incredibly fast rate the next 12 months will see significant changes being introduced through the key end of support milestones, driving businesses towards transformation. This presents the perfect opportunity for these businesses to begin their journey to a modernised IT estate.

Wherever you are on your IT transformation journey, Comms-care has a team of world-class Microsoft certified consultants with extensive experience of transitioning to modernised services. Get in touch to explore your options further and to understand how Comms-care can add value to the modernisation journey for your end user customers.