The ITAM Roundup: 1/12/25
📰 News
Enterprises willing to spend up to $250 million on gen AI, but ROI remains elusive
Enterprises are ramping up investments in generative AI, with 68% planning to allocate $50-$250 million in the next year, as 67% of leaders expect business transformation by 2025. Despite this enthusiasm, ROI remains a challenge, with only 31% of organizations anticipating measurable returns within six months, hindered by data quality issues, privacy concerns, and employee adoption gaps. The KPMG survey highlights a shift toward productivity over profitability as the leading AI metric and emphasizes the need for robust data governance and employee upskilling to scale AI initiatives effectively.
Gyana Swain
Microsoft preps for a year of enterprise-impacting M365 retirements
Microsoft is planning several major retirements in 2025, impacting administrators managing Microsoft 365 services and legacy systems. Key changes include the deprecation of Exchange Online Legacy Tokens, the classic Teams desktop app, and support for Office 2016/2019, Windows 10 editions, and various PowerShell modules. Administrators will need to adapt to these shifts, alongside transitioning to newer tools like Entra and Power Automate, while Microsoft focuses on driving Windows 11 adoption.
Richard Speed
Microsoft trims jobs as new year begins
Microsoft has announced minor job cuts at the start of 2025, affecting less than 1% of its 228,000 employees, with layoffs targeting underperforming roles, including in its security division. This follows a pattern of workforce reductions in recent years, despite strong financial performance, including $24.7 billion in net income for Q1 FY25. The company plans to backfill most of the eliminated positions, aligning with its focus on AI-driven transformation across business processes.
Brandon Vigliarolo
Microsoft to force install new Outlook on Windows 10 PCs in February
Microsoft will begin force-installing the new Outlook email client on Windows 10 devices starting February 11, 2025, with the release of its monthly security update. The new app will not replace the classic Outlook or modify user configurations and defaults, but users who prefer not to have it can uninstall it after installation using PowerShell commands and registry changes. The updated Outlook client, initially previewed in May 2022, has been available to personal and commercial users since 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Sergiu Gatlan
Amazon splashes $11B on AI datacenters in Georgia
Amazon is investing $11 billion to expand its data center operations in Georgia, focusing on facilities in Butts and Douglas counties to meet growing demand for cloud computing and AI workloads. The expansion is part of Amazon's larger infrastructure strategy, following $75 billion in capital expenditure in 2024, with plans to dig deeper in 2025. The project is expected to create at least 550 skilled jobs and bolster Georgia's reputation as a tech hub, adding to the state’s existing base of over 50 data centers.
Dan Robinson
Report: SoftBank and Arm could acquire server chip provider Ampere
SoftBank and Arm are reportedly in talks to acquire server chipmaker Ampere Computing, known for its Arm-based processors, including the 192-core AmpereOne M and upcoming 512-core Aurora chip designed for AI applications. Ampere, previously valued at $8 billion, may still consider other bidders or remain independent as talks progress. If the acquisition occurs, SoftBank could integrate Ampere’s CPUs with Graphcore’s AI accelerators, aiming to strengthen its position in the AI server market against competitors like Nvidia.
Maria Deutscher
Scaling up and scaling out: Dell and Nutanix team up to turbocharge the competitive hybrid cloud market
Dell Technologies and Nutanix have expanded their long-standing partnership to enhance the hybrid cloud market, focusing on the integration of Dell’s PowerEdge XC Plus server and PowerFlex software-defined storage with Nutanix’s platform. This collaboration allows organizations to scale compute and storage independently, which is particularly valuable for AI and edge computing workloads. The new offerings provide flexibility, speed, and efficiency for businesses seeking to modernize IT environments and deploy AI-driven infrastructure, positioning Dell and Nutanix to capture market share in the competitive virtualization landscape.
Mark Albertson
📖 Tips
Key FinOps trends for CFOs to watch in 2025
In 2025, FinOps will shift from a focus on cost optimization to driving greater value and performance, with organizations aiming to enhance agility, streamline processes, and align cloud investments with business outcomes. Cloud governance will become a priority as businesses address inefficiencies and wasteful spending caused by fragmented systems and siloed practices. Additionally, the rise of AI and predictive analytics will enable organizations to make smarter, real-time decisions, while industry-specific approaches and managed FinOps services will offer tailored strategies and reduce operational costs.
Dan O’Brien
How FinOps and ITAM teams can work together in real-life scenarios
In today’s cloud-driven business environment, effective collaboration between FinOps and ITAM teams is essential for optimizing resource utilization, managing costs, and ensuring efficient cloud governance. FinOps focuses on cloud cost visibility, financial accountability, and optimization, while ITAM ensures proper license management, compliance, and resource allocation. Together, they create a unified strategy for cloud management, from onboarding workloads to establishing governance, enabling businesses to achieve financial and operational efficiency while fostering a culture of collaboration.
Flexera
Cloud Trends to Watch in 2025: Sustainability, Supercloud, and a Shift Beyond Edge
In 2025, cloud computing will see a stronger push for quantifiable sustainability metrics, reflecting growing demands for transparency from providers. The rise of supercloud architectures, which unify cloud management across platforms, and the normalization of multicloud strategies will shape cloud adoption trends. Meanwhile, edge computing hype is waning, and cloud compliance challenges will intensify as new AI and cybersecurity regulations emerge.
Christopher Tozzi
How to Negotiate AWS Pricing
Negotiating AWS pricing involves analyzing your current usage, leveraging multi-year commitments, and strategically engaging account managers to secure discounts or tailored terms. Key tactics include benchmarking against competitors, consolidating accounts to qualify for volume-based discounts, and emphasizing long-term value to AWS. To maximize savings and scalability, organizations should prepare thoroughly, address challenges like hidden costs or inflexible contracts, and explore options like Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and private pricing agreements.
Fredrik Filipsson
🐛Bugs & Exploits
Azure networking snafu enters day 2, some services still limping
Microsoft’s Azure cloud services experienced a prolonged outage starting January 8, 2025, due to a network configuration issue in the East US 2 region, affecting multiple services like Azure Databricks, PowerBI, and SQL Managed Instances. Although Microsoft rerouted traffic and restored impacted storage partitions, intermittent errors and degraded performance persist for some customers. The company is providing hourly updates and has advised customers to implement disaster recovery measures while full recovery remains underway.
Jessica Lyons
