Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Microsoft Readies FastTrack PR Blitz

Microsoft is taking FastTrack on a world tour to raise the profile of the cloud onboarding service with tech professionals and developers.

Microsoft and partners have a love-hate relationship with FastTrack. Microsoft loves the program because it helps boost consumption of cloud services, a key metric for the company and a critical goal for retaining subscriptions to Office 365 and other cloud services. Partners often counter that the program zeroes-out formerly profitable routine migration services, while still devaluing in customers' eyes the more complicated migrations that partners must take over when the FastTrack desk's remote and automated capabilities fall short.

Microsoft defines FastTrack as a "customer success service." In three years, as of September, Microsoft claims to have onboarded 40,000 customers and migrated more than 6.5 petabytes of data through the service, which is included in the price of Microsoft cloud subscriptions.

The company had a big presence for FastTrack at the Microsoft Ignite show in September, with an expo presence and more than 20 FastTrack-related sessions. Next month, Microsoft begins a 17-city tour to bring Ignite material to customers around the world, and the FastTrack team is among the most enthusiastic Microsoft groups participating in the tour.

The free, two-day Microsoft Ignite | The Tour sessions kick off in December in Berlin and São Paulo. Next year, the tour will hit Toronto; Singapore; Tel Aviv; Johannesburg; Milan; Washington, D.C.; Sydney; Hong Kong; London; Amsterdam; Dubai; Seoul; Mexico City; and Stockholm before wrapping up in Mumbai in late May.

In the condensed context of Microsoft Ignite | The Tour, the FastTrack elements will include 15-minute theater sessions and breakout sessions with an emphasis on deploying Microsoft 365 products, and details about the app remediation services of Desktop App Assure.

Posted by Scott Bekker on November 26, 2018


Featured

  • IBM Giving Orgs a Governance Lifeline in Agentic AI Era

    Nearly overnight, organizations are facing brand-new challenges caused by self-directed AI systems (a.k.a. agentic AI). Big Blue is extending them some help.

  • Microsoft Launches Integrated E-mail Security Ecosystem for Defender for Office 365

    Microsoft is expanding its e-mail security capabilities with the launch of a new Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES) ecosystem for Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

  • Microsoft Joins Workday's AI Agent Partner Network

    Microsoft has become a key partner in Workday's newly launched AI Agent Partner Network, aligning with other industry leaders to integrate AI agents into enterprise workforce systems.

  • LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky To Lead Microsoft's Productivity Initiatives

    In a strategic leadership realignment, Microsoft has appointed LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky to oversee its consumer and small business productivity software division, encompassing Microsoft 365, Teams and AI-driven tools like Copilot.