Azure for Executives

Most organizations producing software are moving their workloads to the cloud. In doing so they are typically choosing between 3 modes of cloud service, especially regarding their product architecture. The 3 main models for cloud offerings are IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.Moving solutions to the cloud, or building a cloud-native solution, requires rethinking how we sell and distribute our software. Cloud-first sales models can be very different than traditional sales pipelines. Today we are focusing on Software-as-a-Service applications as a vehicle for selling cloud-based solutions. Our guest, Ercenk Keresteci explains that SaaS applications are the de-facto model for companies licensing their software.Episode Links:Episode TranscriptWhat is SaaS?Publish solutions on the Azure MarketplaceClients for different programming languages and samplesGuest:Ercenk Keresteci is a Microsoft Principal Architect with a focus on manufacturing and the Internet of Things. He has a specific focus on these industries while helping partners onboard their solutions onto the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace.Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.Host:David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Kohei Kurihara, co-founder of Privacy by Design Lab and President of the Tokyo chapter of the Government Blockchain Association, helps us understand the difference between public and private blockchain and talks about how blockchain can be used in data privacy scenarios, how blockchain fits into the larger IT ecosystem, and which industries are taking up blockchain today.Additionally, David Houlding, Director of Healthcare Experiences at Microsoft tells us what investments in blockchain he is seeing particularly around data privacy.Episode Links:Episode TranscriptMicrosoft Azure Blockchain SolutionsAzure Blockchain ServiceAzure Blockchain WorkbenchGovernment Blockchain AssociationGuests:Kohei Kurihara is the co-founder of Privacy by Design Lab and has deep experience with blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. He is the president of the Tokyo chapter of the Government Blockchain Association.Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter.David Houlding is Director of Healthcare Experiences at Microsoft. He has 26+ years of experience in healthcare spanning provider, payer, pharmaceutical, and life sciences segments worldwide, he also has deep experience and expertise in cloud computing, privacy, security, compliance, blockchain, and AI / ML. Responsibilities include leading an expert team and program to accelerate key healthcare partners of Microsoft with Azure, Marketplace, and GTM jumpstart (co-marketing, and co-selling) to help them grow worldwide.Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter.HostDavid Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Acknowledging the pandemic in the UK is presenting some unique challenges. Andrew Busby, the founder of Retail Reflections and co-founder of SafePrem, talks about how is the pandemic is impacting retail in the UK and across the world and the digital technologies and trends retailers are specifically using that are really making a difference right now.We also discuss how Microsoft is taking part in some of the technologies or trends Andrew describes, and what Microsoft and other retailers are seeing in the retail space in response to COVID challenges.Episode LinksEpisode TranscriptAndrew’s ArticlesSafePremBehind the Mask PodcastSafePrem BlogSafePrem on TwitterMicrosoft in RetailRetail Trends Playbook for 2021Azure Machine LearningAzure Digital TwinsAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure MarketplaceAppSourceGuestAndrew Busby is the founder of Retail Reflections and co-founder of SafePrem. Andrew is a Top 20 global retail influencer, Forbes contributor, IBM Futurist, keynote speaker, retail writer & analyst.Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter. HostDavid Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, we talk about making data-driven decisions using DataVisor with Jamshed Patel, Vice President of Solution Engineering. Nick Leimer, Principal Industry Lead in Microsoft Azure for Insurance, explains how seeing more fraud-based solutions in the insurance industry means moving to real-time analysis, alerting, and remediation with DataVisor.While we’re seeing early adopters embrace technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence to help drive their businesses forward with autonomous systems, the uptake is much slower than one might expect. The number of companies willing to turn over their operations to a real-time-system vs. a report-analyze-act sort of model is surprisingly small.Some organizations have taken the approach of capturing all kinds of data in hopes they will glean insights after capturing anything and everything they can get their hands on. Jamsheed explains how using this technique has panned out for companies trying to find insights from their data estates or data lakes and shares interesting data sources he looks at to make determinations about threat vectors and real-time remediation.Episode LinksEpisode TranscriptMicrosoft Azure Synapse AnalyticsDataVisor.comDataVisor on LinkedIn and TwitterAzure MarketplaceAppSourceGuestsJamshed Patel is Vice President of Solution Engineering at DataVisor. DataVisor is a Microsoft partner and makes powerful and comprehensive fraud and risk solutions for various industries.Follow him on LinkedIn.Nick Leimer is Principal Industry Lead in Microsoft Azure for Insurance.Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter. HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare so rapidly in 2020 and whether these changes will stick in years to come.David Houlding, Director of Healthcare Experiences on the Microsoft Industry Experiences team, describes some of Microsoft’s current major initiatives around Healthcare like investing in AI.Our guests, Irma Rastegayeva and Evan Kirstel of eViRa Health talk about what interesting technology and trends are in healthcare right now, as well as how technology can best serve healthcare to be more agile in serving current strains in the healthcare system, and how we, as consumers, are now using wearables like Fitbits and Apple Watches to take in-home monitoring of our own health to the next level.Episode LinksTranscripteViRa HealthFollow eViRa Health on LinkedIn or Twitter.Microsoft HealthAzure MarketplaceAppSourcePartner Center: how to get started. HealthcareIndExp@Microsoft.comAzure MarketplaceAppSourceGuestsIrma Rastegayevais a former Googler, software engineer, and technical manager, turned Digital Storyteller and Coach for clients in healthcare, life sciences & health tech. She is particularly focused on the patient journey.Follow her on  Twitter or LinkedIn.Evan Kirstel a tech influencer and evangelist with 30 years of experience in enterprise sales, alliances, and business development. He brings a unique perspective to remote work, social, mobile, and the voice/video/web collaboration market and cloud technology.Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.David Houldingis the Director of Healthcare Experiences on the Microsoft Industry Experiences team. He has extensive experience in healthcare and related technologies, most recently cloud, blockchain, and AI.Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, Alan Chhabra, SVP of Partners and SVP of Asia Sales at MongoDB, talks about MongoDB, a high-performance database best suited for Big Data applications and Agile software development practices. It offers a flexible data model, elastic scalability, and high performance. Microsoft Azure is one of the best places to run MongoDB workloads securely and efficiently.Alan discusses trends to be watched in the non-relational database space, MongoDB for website development, as well as the many other uses of the platform, how their experience has been from his side in offering MongoDB Atlas on Azure, and how he sees the future of MongoDB evolving within Azure.Episode LinksShow TranscriptMongoDB WebsiteAutomated MongoDB Service on Microsoft AzureFollow MongoDB on Twitter or LinkedIn.GuestAlan Chhabrais responsible for Worldwide Partners as well as running Asia Sales at MongoDB.He is a frequent speaker at industry events where he regularly leads discussions on how cloud computing, IoT, and big data can help CIOs meet their business objectives.Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, Dr. Louise Beaumont talks about the idea of exploiting disruption: the most meaningful and promising disrupting trends or technologies she is watching, as well as how open and accessible data changes the landscape of financial services, and the technologies driving change around data usage.She also discusses the concept of open banking and its goal to provide services we didn’t know we needed, but now can’t live without, and the value of industry vertical marketplaces.Episode LinksBanking Industry Home - For various articles and papers.Capital Markets Home - Among other things, you’ll find a great e-book on Enabling the capital markets firm of the future.Financial Services BlogGuestDr. Louise Beaumont has a soft spot in her heart for true innovation and disruption in financial services. She works with legislators and regulators to drive positive disruption with established organizations to cope with disruption, and with start-ups to exploit disruption. As such, she has a rounded perspective on FinTech’s future and the smart, open and accessible data required to fuel it.Follow her on LinkedIn or Twitter.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

This episode is about the newly announced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare which is now available! We delve into the capabilities of this industry-vertical cloud and get a sense of why industry clouds are starting to emerge with Microsoft’s Jenn Roth and John Doyle.Healthcare is in transition. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated healthcare technology from nice to haves to imperatives. Jenn and John talk about what the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is, why healthcare data is so difficult to manage and how the Cloud for Healthcare helps, the capabilities the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offers to healthcare customers and partners compared to the standard Azure cloud, and whether or not Microsoft is looking at creating additional industry clouds.Episode LinksTranscriptCloud for Healthcare Home | More resources to exploreMicrosoft Healthcare Industry HomeMicrosoft Cloud for Healthcare Services Partners’ Capabilities GuideMicrosoft’s Healthcare Industry BlogMicrosoft Cloud for Healthcare is transforming the healthcare journey by Tom McGuinnessPartnering to reimagine better experiences and better care for patients by Scott RollinsMicrosoft as Undisputed AI Leader in healthcareGuestsJohn Doyle is a director within the worldwide commercial business industry team at Microsoft. He is responsible for the development of business strategy and partnerships across the healthcare industry, globally. John engages with industry customers and partners, developing strategies and repeatable technology solutions that harness the power of the cloud and AI to drive innovation and industry transformation.Follow him on LinkedIn.Jenn Roth is the Global Product Marketing Director for the Healthcare in the Microsoft Cloud Group. Jenn joined Microsoft 2 years ago after 20+ years working in healthcare and Med Tech industries. She excels when given opportunities to lead healthcare strategy development and enhance customer experience about our company, products, and services.Follow her on LinkedIn.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, we discuss trends and technologies influencing and supporting the financial services industry with special guest, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), a public/private sector initiative to drive fintech and digitalization for Luxembourg's financial services industry.Nasir shares with us innovations that the LHoFT has given their customers and its overall mission and purpose, Luxembourg as a global financial center, financial Inclusion and its relationship to the blockchain, how blockchain is being used in Financial Technology aka Fintech, current technologies used in Fintech and what the future holds, the emerging role of data and statistical analysis in Fintech, and if he sees AI as a promising aide here.We also talk about how technology providers like Microsoft are playing a role in Fintech’s digital transformation, and what the emergence of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) means for the industry.Episode LinksThe LHoFT – Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (Twitter / LinkedIn)Banking Industry Home - Here, you’ll find various articles and papers.Capital Markets Home - Among other things, you’ll find a great e-book on enabling the capital markets firm of the future.Financial Services blogGuestNasir Zubairi is CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (or LHoFT), a public/private sector initiative to drive fintech and digitalization for Luxembourg's financial services industry.Follow Nasir on Twitter or LinkedIn.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Marketplace Onboarding, Enablement, and Growth team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this episode, we talked about retail and consumer goods with a focus on eCommerce and the fast-paced change the industry is seeing with our guests, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis Jason Goldberg, and Principal Industry Lead for Retail & CPG at Microsoft Sahir Anand. We talk about Microsoft’s retail and consumer goods strategies, interesting technologies or trends in retail right now, the urgency for businesses to change investment priorities considering the pandemic and the strain it has put on them, and new delivery models such as last-mile home delivery and the implications for retailers.Episode LinksRetail and Consumer Good HomeRetail Trends Playbook e-bookGuestsJason Goldberg is Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis. He was voted one of retail’s top global influencers by Vend four years in a row, and in 2017 he was inducted into the National Retail Federation’s “The List” of people shaping the future of retail.Jason has a podcast of his own, the retail-focused Jason and Scot show. The home for the podcast is jasonandscot.com and it’s the top-rated iTunes podcast for eCommerce.Follow Jason on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out his blog at retailgeek.com.Sahir Anand is the Principal Industry Lead for Retail & CPG at Microsoft.In his 20-year career, Sahir has focused on building experience and expertise within retail and consumer goods industries and now works with the Cloud & AI Industry Experiences team at Microsoft.Follow Sahir on LinkedIn.HostsPaul Maher is General Manager of the Industry Experiences Team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.David Starr is a Principal Azure Solutions Architect in the Industry Experiences Team at Microsoft. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.