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Tag: Azure

  • Powering intelligent decision-making with Azure and AI

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    In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, data is the foundation of innovation for organizations in any industry. With the transformative capabilities of AI, businesses can unlock the power of their data to gain deeper insights, make more informed decisions, and achieve better outcomes. Part of the broader Art of Practical AI series, this blog explores how companies are using Microsoft Azure and AI to drive strategic insights, optimize operations, and enhance customer experiences. 

    Gaining strategic business insights by adopting AI

    The first step in implementing AI for strategic insights involves establishing a secure data environment. As cyberattacks continue to increase and intensify, it’s crucial for organizations to take a proactive approach by adopting strict control measures, such as Zero Trust policies, to protect data against unauthorized access.  

    Additionally, optimizing existing infrastructure—including security systems—ensures that data environments can handle the increased use by AI applications. With a comprehensive solution in place, AI can drive real business impact. 

    For example, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is migrating its IT infrastructure to Azure so that it can use the full set of Microsoft solutions to build and run AI models more easily. With all of its data streamlined in the cloud, the NBA can quickly use its AI-powered applications in a secure environment and gain deeper, more impactful insights. As a result, the NBA has achieved faster time to market for innovations while delivering personalized content for fans, driving engagement, and expanding its reach to new countries and languages. 

    In another example, the Finance Data and Experiences team at Microsoft is handling large volumes of revenue data and compiling important reports using AI. By adopting Microsoft Fabric as a faster, simpler, and more scalable way to unify its data, the team reduced processing times by 67%. “With Fabric, we’ve gained the speed to data we were hoping for, we’ve expanded data access, and we’ve even reduced the cost of generating that data by 50%,” says Ramakrishna Burugupalli, Engineering Lead for Commercial Finance Data and Experiences at Microsoft. 

    Benchmarking AI models and driving detailed analytics

    Adopting new technology leads to many changes throughout an organization. To get the most out of AI solutions, it’s important to choose AI models that will integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. This is where benchmarking plays a central role. 

    Marketing company Dentsu adopted Azure AI Foundry to build a predictive AI analytics copilot that assists its analysts with media forecasting and budgeting. Azure AI Foundry acts as a central place for designing, customizing, and managing AI models, and the company uses it to access and quickly benchmark the latest generative AI models. 

    Dentsu built the solution in under 12 weeks on Azure OpenAI Service and has increased its insights time by 90%. “It was great to get a head start with the scripts that were part of the Azure AI prompt flow template,” says Simon Ransom, Lead DevOps Engineer at Dentsu. 

    To maximize the benefits of AI, companies can identify opportunities where AI-powered automation can improve efficiency and reduce operational costs, such as data-heavy workloads and repetitive tasks. For example, Toyota is building a system of AI agents to store and share internal expertise that will accelerate new vehicle development. Engineers can ask agents questions about their workflows and receive informative answers from multiple agents at once. The system, which runs on Azure OpenAI Service, has been used by more than 800 engineers working on the company’s power trains since January 2024. 

    ABB, a global leader in electrification and automation, uses Azure AI to improve its industrial operations. ABB’s IoT and AI suite, ABB Ability™ Genix, provides customers with insights into manufacturing and operations status, but extracting those insights required advanced skills. To make this easier, ABB created Genix Copilot, which uses generative AI to allow users to get answers to critical questions using natural language. This has led to significant savings in operations, maintenance, and improvements in energy and emission optimization.   

    Enhancing decision-making with AI

    As you explore how AI can benefit your business, ask a few key questions to choose the right AI models:  

    • What is your primary use case?
    • What’s the best opportunity for a first proof of concept?  
    • What will it take to scale your solution for production workloads?  

    Then, promote experimentation and internal knowledge sharing as you implement AI tools to achieve the most significant benefits. 

    Azure and AI are transforming how today’s businesses excel, providing strategic data insights that drive intelligent decision-making. By adopting the trusted infrastructure of Azure, companies can optimize their operations, enhance customer experiences, and achieve significant business outcomes. 

    The NBA, Dentsu, Toyota, ABB, and the Microsoft Finance Data and Experiences team are just a few examples of organizations illustrating the transformative power of combining Azure and AI to deliver insights and spark innovation. 

    To discover how your organization can use AI to drive impactful business outcomes, explore the following resources: 

    The Art of Practical AI

    Dig deeper into our three-part series showcasing how organizations like yours are turning AI into impact.

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  • The Future of Customer Service: AI Innovations and Real-World Applications

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    Exceptional customer experiences are now the standard. AI is revolutionizing how businesses interact with customers, enhancing experiences and meeting evolving expectations.  

    Incorporating AI into your customer engagement strategy can help your organization anticipate consumer trends, personalize content and recommendations, and empower customer service agents to focus on meaningful interactions. 

    Early AI adopters are realizing an astonishing $3.50 return on investment for every dollar spent on AI, so now is the time to act. This blog is part of the Art of Practical AI series, which explores how organizations are putting AI to work in real, measurable ways. In this blog, we will examine real-life solutions that elevate the customer experience, optimize business operations, and create strategic business insights. 

    Anticipating consumer needs with AI innovation 

    AI-focused organizations are uncovering new insights that anticipate consumer needs and simplify the customer experience. Analyzing large datasets can reveal shopping trends and streamline inventory management, particularly for retailers.  

    For example, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., a global retailer with more than 750 stores, is using AI data analytics to better serve its customers. By moving its on-premises e-commerce environment and data estate to Microsoft Azure, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. created a Global Data Cloud platform. This modern infrastructure allows the company to understand local shopping trends and predict which products should be available to meet customer needs. 

    Generative AI facilitates the creation of sophisticated models that can generate human-like text, images, and other content, enhancing the customer experience in a variety of applications. AI-powered chatbots use these AI models to provide intelligent, context-aware interactions, improving customer service and user engagement.  

    For instance, tax experts at H&R Block wanted to make filing taxes online easier, so the company used Azure AI Studio and Azure OpenAI Service to build a new solution on the H&R Block platform to provide real-time, reliable tax filing assistance. The generative AI–driven tax assistant answers tax-related questions and gives guidance on specific tax rules to help online filers feel confident in the process. 

    Thriving with AI-driven content creation and personalization 

    AI is helping businesses thrive in a competitive landscape where personalization is key. From automated content creation to personalized recommendations, organizations are using AI to power unique customer experiences. For example, Heritage Grocers Group, a leading grocery retailer, is using Microsoft Fabric to unify its data and analytics platform. By adopting this technology, Heritage Grocers Group has saved $500,000 and improved its ability to understand customer preferences and optimize product assortment by location. 

    Retailers are harnessing AI to create personalized shopping experiences that delight consumers. Walmart built a generative AI–powered search function that generates personalized responses to customer queries and will soon include customized product suggestions. 

    AI is enhancing in-person travel experiences, too. The City of Rome reimagined travel with a virtual tour guide named Julia. This AI-driven virtual assistant interacts with tourists, offering tailored itineraries or recommending a quiet spot for dinner. Julia uses a full suite of Microsoft products including Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI Search, and Azure OpenAI Service to guide tourists toward hidden gems, reducing congestion around the city’s most popular attractions. 

    Empowering customer service teams with AI automation 

    Customer service representatives are often the public face of a business and an important touchpoint in consumer engagement. Empowering customer service teams to meaningfully connect with individual customers can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty. Early generative AI adopters in customer service have seen a 40% increase in productivity, including a 14% increase per hour in customer care resolution. 

    Incorporating generative AI solutions into customer relationship management systems is helping businesses consolidate information and reduce manual processes for customer service teams. Digital financial services firm Ally Financial is using Azure and Azure OpenAI Service to replace manual note-taking with AI-generated call summaries, allowing customer service associates to focus on personal interactions. 

    Generative AI–driven chatbots or virtual assistants can provide support for common concerns, freeing customer service teams to focus on more complex queries. Telstra, a leading telecommunications company in Australia, developed two cutting-edge generative AI tools powered by Azure OpenAI Service. These tools help Telstra respond to customers more quickly and effectively, resulting in better customer experiences, reduced wait times, and manageable workloads for employees. 

    Transforming customer engagement 

    AI is empowering organizations across industries to reimagine the customer experience, helping them thrive in the digital age of personalization. These real-world examples demonstrate how businesses can harness the Azure ecosystem to accelerate AI transformation. 

    To dig deeper into how your organization can use AI to enhance the customer experience, please explore these additional resources: 

    • Discover Microsoft AI solutions: Find out how Microsoft is empowering the world to achieve more with AI, and discover the technology-driving transformation. 

    The Art of Practical AI

    Dig deeper into our three-part series showcasing how organizations like yours are turning AI into impact.

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  • Strengthening patient data integrity with advanced security and AI solutions

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    Microsoft’s security toolkits provided a ready-made solution that allowed an Ontario-based health network to create a stable environment that maintains continuity of care even in the face of disruptions.  

    A cyberattack has the potential to be catastrophic in any industry. But in healthcare, the impacts are on the level of life and death, compromising access to patient information and to critical digital tools that affect delivery of care.  

    What’s more, a cybersecurity incident not only has a toll on the impacted hospital, but creates a domino effect on unaffected hospitals.  This interruption can drive up waiting room times by as much as 46% and stroke code activations by as much as 47%.  

    Given the stakes, ransomware attacks and other disruptions to healthcare security pose a major challenge to providers across the industry. But many organizations lack the internal resources to research, evaluate, and implement new security tools and solutions on their own.   

    That was certainly the case for Mackenzie Health, a two-hospital health network in Richmond Hill and Vaughan, Ontario. “One of the challenges healthcare organizations face is keeping up with constantly evolving cyber threats while we are working with very limited resources,” says Felix Zhang, the health network’s Chief Technology Officer. “We found that adopting the security toolkits provided by Microsoft was a much more effective approach.” 

    Protecting the integrity of patient data even through disruptions 

    Earlier this year, Mackenzie Health worked with Microsoft and Sapphire Health Technology Consulting to build its first cloud-hosted electronic medical record (EMR) instance on Azure, which allows the organization to sync its on-premises EMR database to its cloud infrastructure in real time. This cloud read-only instance allows providers and clinicians to access essential patient information, such as demographics, allergies, medications, lab results, and clinical notes, ensuring continuity of care even during a production system outage or cyber incident.  

    In addition, this copy of the EMR database is isolated from other EMR environments to reduce the risk of cross-contamination during a cyberattack, helping Mackenzie Health protect the integrity of its patient data.  

    The organization has also adopted almost a full stack of Microsoft security products, including secure email, endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, and more. This offers users a unified experience across all the platforms, improving operational efficiency and simplifying training, making it easy for users to learn and adopt the new tools.  

    Custom apps that can be built in days, not months  

    These enhancements to Mackenzie Health were just the latest step in a long partnership with Microsoft. Since starting its cloud migration journey a few years ago, the organization has migrated most of its business applications to the cloud and leveraged Power Apps to save time, improve efficiency, and fill gaps in its digital capabilities across the organization, from finance to lab. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed an online scheduling system for the vaccination clinic using Power Apps in less than a week,” says Zhang.  

    Getting ready for next-gen infrastructure and security challenges 

    How does Mackenzie Health plan to navigate the next stage of digital evolution and security threats?  

    “As our on-prem infrastructure ages and approaches its end of life, we will shift our focus to evaluating the next-gen infrastructure options for our client computing and clinical systems,” says Zhang. “By leveraging this partnership, we are now better prepared against cyber threats, ensuring that patient care remains safe and undisturbed during a cyber event, and also to maintain the integrity of our data.” 

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  • Enhancing customer experiences with emerging technology

    Enhancing customer experiences with emerging technology

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    Exceptional customer experiences are no longer the exception—they’re the rule. Companies need the right combination of innovation and cultural transformation to stand out, build customer trust, and achieve high engagement.

    We’ve interviewed three experts about the ways AI and other emerging technologies are improving the experiences of both customers and employees. The consensus is clear: building customer-first internal cultures will lay the foundation for future innovation and growth.

    Instilling a customer-first mindset in financial services

    One factor stands out when considering how customers experience financial services companies, according to Theodora Lau: “economy, economy, economy.” Lau, Founder of Unconventional Ventures, stresses that businesses need to offer more than the ability to track spending. Remembering the goals and concerns of the humans at the center of each experience will help leaders use AI successfully and transparently to provide more personalized and convenient customer experiences. “AI can decipher our data, it can provide us with insights, and it can tell us how to go from point A to point B,” says Lau. But companies that use these capabilities to drive customer-first cultures are positioned to continue innovating as AI advances.

    It’s also important to remember that transparency surrounding technology builds trust. For instance, making it clear when customers are interacting with a virtual agent and not a person can actually strengthen relationships with customers and free them to achieve their financial goals with confidence.

    Audio description version: Top Industry Trends in Customer Experience: Financial Services

    Driving personalization for retail customers with AI

    Ron Thurston, Cofounder of OSSY, spent more than a year traveling through 30 US states to talk to frontline retail teams and executives about emerging customer trends. “Every part of our industry that touches retail is speaking about personalization and customization,” says Thurston.

    Improving retail experiences involves everything from operations and employee training to customer loyalty programs and support. “We’ve never needed to be at our best more than we do right now,” says Thurston.

    Personalization depends on analyzing large amounts of rich data—that’s where AI comes in. AI solutions can unlock insights to power personalized shopping at scale. Companies that use these tools are positioning themselves to design customized shopping experiences, smart recommendations, and intelligent outreach, all of which adds up to a seamless unified commerce experience.

    While customization is one key to sparking customer engagement, the employee experience is what truly sets brands apart from competitors. “A team that is fully engaged and really proud of what they do is likely to engage with customers at a very high level, and customers feel it,” says Thurston. When employees are empowered with the tools they need, they can pass on the benefits of better efficiency and satisfaction to customers.

    Audio description: Top Industry Trends in Customer Experience: Retail and Consumer Goods

    Engaging patients as customers to build trust and better service

    When the customer is also a patient, developing engagement strategies that meet their needs and expectations can revolutionize their healthcare experience. “People think the service level of healthcare should excel and be enhanced like their favorite kind of retail experience,” says Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Health Economist and Founder of THINK-Health LLC.

    With the well-being of customers directly tied to their engagement with your company, a trustworthy experience can make an immense difference to their mental and physical health. “Without trust, there is no health engagement,” says Sarasohn-Kahn.

    Building trust between patients and providers means prioritizing factors like sincerity and authenticity—qualities that AI can enhance. Unlocking data-driven insights can also promote the personalization that strengthens customer relationships. “AI is being deployed across the ecosystem, wherever patients are,” says Sarasohn-Kahn.

    One example is Nuance, a patient management solution from Microsoft, which uses conversational AI to boost communication with patients through appointment reminders, outreach, and support. With better communication tools, you can interact with patients where they are and enhance the omnichannel care that promotes the best outcomes.

    Another example comes from US healthcare organization Providence, which developed an AI product called ProVARIA using Microsoft Azure solutions to automatically classify incoming patient messages and direct them to the appropriate responders. This way, clinicians can spend more time on patient outcomes, and patients can enjoy an enhanced experience.

    Audio description version: Top Industry Trends in Patient Experience: Healthcare and Life Sciences

    Enhancing customer experiences with emerging technology

    The right combination of cutting-edge technology and a customer-first internal culture drives engagement. Regardless of your industry, engaging customers means being purpose driven and having access to the tools you need.

    To learn more, explore the Microsoft Customer Experience Platform.

    To discover how you can use AI to gain new customer insights, learn more about Azure Synapse Analytics.

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  • Looking to modernize your financial services business?

    Looking to modernize your financial services business?

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    Risk comes in many forms. And companies in the financial services sector face it to a higher degree—and on more fronts—than the average business, whether they’re making investment decisions, complying with regulations, thwarting cyberattacks, or preventing fraud. With the growing complexity of customer data and interactions, managing risk is a constantly evolving challenge.

    While risk and business go hand in hand, today’s technologies make it easier than ever to navigate uncertainties. Businesses are using the latest in cloud technology, AI, and analytics to modernize their infrastructure and stay competitive. By streamlining operations, they’re also lowering their total cost of ownership. Microsoft and Microsoft partners are helping companies make the most of these new technologies, working together toward innovative solutions to manage risk in compliance, employee conduct, fraud prevention, and other areas.

    Meeting complex reporting requirements head-on

    Modern financial services companies face risk from more compliance and regulatory requirements than ever. In order to meet these requirements, teams are managing increased workloads while looking for ways to reduce spending. That’s one area where cloud technology can be particularly important.

    Secure cloud solutions can help lower costs while simplifying the compliance process. By moving operations from a capital expenditure model to an operational expenditure model, businesses can reduce their total cost of ownership for technology. Leaning on the cloud offers additional benefits as well, such as increased scalability, Zero Trust data privacy guardrails, and up-to-the-minute access to AI.

    AI is already a powerful tool in financial services, but keeping pace with changing regulations and technology can be daunting. That’s where teaming up with a partner can help. Neudesic, a 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year, is transforming the financial sector by applying the power of AI to risk management in IT operations. Using responsible AI and its own Intelligent Ops program, Neudesic helps businesses identify and automatically remediate system threats and vulnerabilities to avoid noncompliance or a data breach. A ChatGPT-like interface simplifies compliance audits as well.

    Managing employee conduct and communication risks

    Financial services teams also bear the responsibility of protecting customers—and customer data—from the risk of possible employee misconduct. But manually monitoring all employee communications across all communication channels for signs of market manipulation and client abuse places a large burden on analysts.

    New innovations in technology can help lighten that load. With the help of AI, analysts can make faster and more accurate decisions regarding employee risk. Companies can take tools like risk visualization and clarified decisioning and use them to detect and assess employee conduct risks before they become a problem.

    NICE Actimize is a Microsoft partner working with businesses to reduce financial crime. Its Compliancentral, an innovative end-to-end compliance recording and trade surveillance solution, uses the latest in AI technology and analytics to get the job done. “With AI-powered case management,” explains Chris DeNigris, Director of Product Marketing and Compliance at NICE, “you get a single, comprehensive view of employee risk that speeds up investigations and increases efficiency.”

    Navigating fraud risk with enterprise decision making

    Embedded services for on-the-go access help the financial sector offer clients an individualized experience. But these services come at the risk of keeping customer data safe while still accessible across the organization.

    Separating and limiting access to data can offer some protection, but it’s impractical. Employees need accurate and timely information to provide the best customer experience. Wealth managers also rely on precise information to assess matters like how well a particular product has performed or whether a service still brings value to the company.

    Decisions that take into account the whole picture of a customer carry less risk. SAS is an analytics and solutions business helping companies move toward an architecture that can deliver differentiated experiences to their customers. “Holistic decisions across risk, fraud, and marketing can set one organization apart from the next,” explains Terisa Roberts, Global Solution Lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. “This concept not only enhances the customer experience, but also rationalizes complex IT infrastructure, reduces costs, and provides the agility required to address new risks and competitive pressures.”

    Maximizing your company’s potential while minimizing risk

    Whether you’re managing risk in compliance, employee conduct, or fraud prevention, modernizing your data infrastructure with the latest in AI and analytics can help cut costs and increase efficiency to keep you competitive. There’s no time like the present to take your business to the next level.

    Learn more from Microsoft partners Neudesic, NICE, and SAS in the Modernizing Risk Management for Financial Institutions webinar series.

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  • Harnessing the power of APIs for AI-powered innovation

    Harnessing the power of APIs for AI-powered innovation

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    New AI technology is driving rapid change for businesses and consumers alike, and organizations are exploring opportunities to harness the power of AI to improve productivity and spur creativity. Automating repetitive tasks empowers employees to spend more time on innovation, and the advanced analytic capabilities of AI offer new insights in near real time that can help your business build and maintain a competitive edge.

    The right digital foundation prepares your organization for cutting-edge AI technologies. Application programming interfaces (APIs) that facilitate communication between software programs are the backbone of digital transformation. Integrating in-house and third-party software and applications is essential to helping your business streamline operations, manage data, and ensure seamless communication across different applications.

    A comprehensive API management solution like Azure Integration Services offers companies an efficient, cost-effective way to create new business value and empower employees to maximize the use of existing technology. An API-first strategy helps your organization build a foundation for future innovation and the effective use of AI-powered solutions.

    API solutions are pivotal to data management

    Companies eager to embrace AI and unlock new business opportunities are rapidly recognizing the value and necessity of integration. Gartner estimates that 50 percent of the time and cost of building a digital platform will go toward integration.[i] Focusing your business on developing APIs and using the features available in Azure Integration Services offers your company a simple, effective way to streamline data across hybrid environments.

    Most businesses store information in multiple software applications—sometimes in the cloud and sometimes on-premises—creating a complex digital ecosystem with different touchpoints and third-party suppliers. Using integration services to manage your entire data estate ensures that disparate software and application sources connect seamlessly to bring data together in one place and spurs business-wide innovation.

    For example, Swiss Re, a leading wholesale provider of reinsurance and insurance, saw an opportunity to offer new microservices, such as flight insurance, with a fully automated process. The company developed a digital platform in Microsoft Azure that offers flight insurance, tracks flight statuses, and automatically reimburses travelers for delays. Swiss Re’s platform as a service is cost-effective and can process millions of micro-insurance policies concurrently.

    Driving digital transformation with an API-first strategy

    Embracing an API-first strategy for data management helps your business build seamless communication between existing software programs and ensures that the apps you’re building today are ready for whatever tomorrow brings. Companies can develop cloud-native apps and integration solutions around the APIs for internal software applications and connect with external entities critical to business operations. With APIs that collect, store, and analyze data from legacy software, your organization can continue using the applications that employees love while benefiting from real-time analytic insights.

    When Swiss manufacturing company BÜCHI Labortechnik AG began its digital transformation, for example, it knew it wanted to continue using existing software as a service technologies but needed an integration solution to streamline business operations. The company turned to Azure Integration Services and an API-first approach to integrate its various technologies. “We can integrate everything,” says Pasquale Prudente, Lead Architect at BÜCHI Labortechnik AG. “That is the beauty of this solution.”

    An API-first strategy not only means faster development and better collaboration but also improved scalability, reusability, and customer experiences. Creating APIs that can be replicated and scaled provides your organization with a flexible architecture for data management. Enterprises can use additional products, such as Azure Logic Apps, to orchestrate a reliable, secure workflow. Retailer SPAR NL in the Netherlands used Logic Apps to build workflows and help dozens of producers and consumers to send messages securely in the cloud and on-premises. Automation tools available in Azure Integration Services can also help your organization minimize manual tasks and give employees more time to focus on work that matters.

    Data estate management feeds AI-powered innovation

    Organizations that invest in an API-first approach will be ready to implement cutting-edge AI technologies quickly and securely. Managing your data estate with integrated solutions is the first step toward harnessing AI’s capabilities. Customers working with Microsoft to understand and implement integration solutions are realizing tangible benefits through improved workflows, real-time business insights, and seamless communication between software applications.

    To discover how an API-first strategy can deliver superior outcomes for your business, register for Unleash the Power of a Modern Integration Platform from the Azure webinar series and learn more from the experts on developing and accelerating API management.

    [i] Rob van der Meulen, “Use a Hybrid Integration Approach to Empower Digital Transformation,” Gartner, April 26, 2018

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  • Microsoft and Alphabet results show Wall Street only cares about AI

    Microsoft and Alphabet results show Wall Street only cares about AI

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    Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. both reported mostly strong results Tuesday, but the disparate reactions from investors showed that Wall Street only cares about artificial intelligence right now.

    While Microsoft shares
    MSFT,
    +0.37%
    rose 4% in after-hours trading following the company’s latest report, Alphabet shares
    GOOG,
    +1.61%

    GOOGL,
    +1.69%
    dropped 6% as Wall Street got the sense that AI is manifesting differently in the companies’ cloud businesses.

    Microsoft surprised investors with 28% constant-currency growth in its Azure cloud-computing business, above the company’s own forecast and the projection for 25.6% growth that analysts were modeling on average. While Microsoft continues to see “optimization” challenges as customers remain conscious about their spending, the company is also benefiting from AI tailwinds in the cloud.

    Companies looking to beef up their AI offerings are often looking to add AI services for their customers through additional cloud services, so they don’t have to do as much internal development themselves. In addition, AI offerings ranging from chatbots to tools that can streamline the writing of reports require ever more computing power, and both Azure and Google Cloud are starting to offer new software applications to address those needs.

    Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella called AI a “unique and different” factor that was helping Azure trends. “Given our leadership position, we are seeing complete new project starts, which are AI projects,” he said in response to an analyst question about the sustainability of cloud growth rates.

    In addition, Microsoft, which has invested heavily in ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, offers an Azure OpenAI service that more than 18,000 organizations are now using. Some of these customers are new to Azure.

    Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood forecast that Azure revenue growth should be around 26% in constant currency in the fiscal second quarter, driven by new workload trends and with the growing contributions from AI.

    Investors seem less confident that Alphabet is seeing the same tailwinds in its Google Cloud business, especially as that segment showed its slowest quarterly growth since Google began breaking out results that way back in 2019. Cloud revenue of $8.4 billion, with growth of 22%, was $250 million shy of consensus estimates on Wall Street, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird. That overshadowed an upbeat performance in the company’s advertising business.

    When one analyst asked Alphabet executives about the deceleration in the revenue growth of its cloud business, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was vague but said that customers are being selective of where they are spending their IT budgets.

    “On cloud, what I would say is overall, we have definitely started seeing customers looking to optimize spend,” Pichai said. “We leaned into it to help customers, given some other challenges they were facing, and so that was a factor.”

    Alphabet is seeing “a lot of interest in AI,” but it remains to be seen whether that’s contributing materially to its financial performance just yet.

    “Google Cloud missed consensus revenue expectations (although in line with Baird) on slowing growth, and we believe consistent with the view that newer Gen-AI workloads will take time to move the needle,” Sebastian wrote in a note to clients.

    Insider Intelligence senior analyst Max Willens added that Google Cloud is facing tough competition, and while the business seems to have traction with AI startups that “may bear fruit in the long run, it is not currently helping Google Cloud enough to satisfy investors.”

    Wall Street clearly is looking to AI to fuel better growth rates and help offset sluggish macroeconomic trends. The poster child for that dynamic is Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +1.60%    ,
    which is expected to single-handedly drive earnings growth for the information technology sector thanks to booming demand for its AI hardware.

    Read: Big-tech results will decide ‘where we go from here’ amid investor caution. They would fall if it weren’t for this one company

    Given economic pressures, it’s becoming obvious that companies without much of an AI story to contribute this quarter will continue to fall out of favor with investors.

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  • Earthling Security Receives StateRAMP Certification

    Earthling Security Receives StateRAMP Certification

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    Press Release
    –

    Aug 24, 2022


    RESTON, Va., August 24, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Earthling Security, LLC, an SBA 8(a) certified small business, is proud to announce that they are accredited to evaluate cloud-based solutions for state and local government agencies as a State Risk and Authorization Management Program (StateRAMP) Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO). Earthling Security received accreditation status becoming a StateRAMP 3PAO. 

    Under StateRAMP, Earthling Security is required to be certified under the same ISO 17020:2012 accreditation for 3PAOs as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). A2LA recently renewed Earthling Security’s FedRAMP 3PAO accreditation. With this most recent renewal, Earthling Security has now also achieved StateRAMP accreditation.  

    Achieving StateRAMP accreditation aligns with Earthling Security’s mission of making it easy for organizations to do business in complex regulatory environments. “StateRAMP creates a standardized practice for state and local governments to validate cloud security,” said Yusuf Ahmed, Earthling Security’s CEO. “Earthling Security is proud to be StateRAMP accredited. We look forward to partnering with states to ensure that their vendors meet their cybersecurity and compliance standards.”

    Additionally, Earthling is now offering fully automated and managed StateRAMP compliant environments in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Earthling’s managed StateRAMP service offerings are built off of the ongoing development of automated infrastructure deployments and continuous control implementation. 

    About StateRAMP

    StateRAMP is an independent not-for-profit organization that helps states reduce cybersecurity risks from insecure cloud solutions by providing a common cloud security verification approach aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 and individual state cybersecurity standards. StateRAMP partners with FedRAMP 3PAO organizations to assess cloud service providers (CSP) for certification. The StateRAMP model levels the playing field for CSPs and ensures state agencies have access to certified, cyber-ready vendors.

    Earthling Security

    Government and commercial organizations have to have secure systems, with compliant, properly designed and implemented architectures. Earthling Security is accredited to assess/audit and designs, builds, automates, and implements those architectures, systems, and applications. As a strategic, end-to-end Cloud Computing, IT Security and Secure DevOps solutions company with extensive experience, our focus is to provide tailored and strategic business solutions to support and optimize the business mission of our valued clients. As a leading provider of both auditing services and ready-made compliant business environments, Earthling Security enables our clients to certify and trust their vendors. 

    For more information about us, please visit our website: www.earthlingsecurity.com

    Contact: Michael McPherson VP Business Process Development michael.mcpherson@earthlingsecurity.com

    Source: Earthling Security, LLC

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  • Persimmony International Signs Five-Year Contract With Santa Clara County Public Health Department

    Persimmony International Signs Five-Year Contract With Santa Clara County Public Health Department

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Jul 2, 2019


    IRVINE, Calif., July 2, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Persimmony International, a leading software developer, marketer and distributor for government health and human services programs, announces it has received a five-year contract for its SaaS case management product from the Santa Clara County Public Health Department (SCCPH) in California.

    This award establishes Persimmony’s dominance in Silicon Valley and forges a strong bond with Persimmony’s well-established client base in the Bay Area and throughout the state. The Santa Clara Public Health contract places Persimmony Electronic Case Management (ECM) software in use in counties representing 23 million of the state’s population of 39 million and its major population centers including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

    Persimmony’s cutting-edge Targeted Case Management (TCM) feature is expected to help SCCPH claim millions of dollars annually from federal reimbursement funds and return them to the County to expand services for the public good. Participation in TCM also generates revenue for the State of California.

    Additionally, Persimmony’s recent selection as a Microsoft Azure Government cloud partner means SCCPH will benefit from best-in-class security, protection and compliance features. Using physically isolated data centers and network, Azure Government provides the highest level of security for agencies with data-security and compliance requirements, such as HIPAA, while still supporting cloud-based computing.

    “We look forward to working with the Santa Clara Public Health team,” says Michael Kogus, president of Persimmony. “SCCPH will benefit from being hosted in the Microsoft Azure Government cloud. A new paradigm of efficiency in HIPAA compliance and data security will be established.”

    About Persimmony International

    Since 2002, Persimmony International Inc. has revolutionized case management and nursing care software as the nation’s leading software developer, marketer and distributor. Persimmony International Inc., whose portfolio of cloud-based products includes Electronic Case Management (ECM), Targeted Case Management (TCM) and other solutions, is trusted and endorsed by public health and human services departments, California First 5, Nurse-Family Partnership and other programs dedicated to the public good. Persimmony creates a central repository for program data, consistently maintains audit-ready status and provides an efficient pathway to federal reimbursement funds. 

    See www.persimmony.com.

    For media, inquiries and more information, please contact:

    Jill McKenna​
    jill@persimmony.com
    Main (949) 770-5550 ext. 106

    Source: Persimmony International Inc.

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