Something not to miss from last week’s Microsoft earnings call. CFO Amy Hood also revealed that Microsoft is extending the life of its server and network equipment assets in its cloud infrastructure from four to six years. This is anticipated as significant cost savings for the company.
I also wanted to note this data point about Microsoft – with their recent block of Office Macros; hackers are compensating and switched to using container files like ISOs or RARs and Windows Shortcut, those LNK files. The number of campaigns containing LNK files increased 1,675% since October 2021,” Proofpoint notes.
So much for every three years rule… in the backend, at least. It’s been a “best practice” for ages about the three-year rotation – with some discussion of four. How many businesses should be reexamining that? Sure, I’m muddling the whole market here and would note desktops versus servers versus laptops; I’m just noting that Microsoft is approaching their server and network investments on a six-year cycle.
Anecdotally, my new last year M1 Max MacBook Pro is probably going to be both supported and incredibly well positioned for five years, if not six. If we’re in the business of maximizing a customer’s technology spend… is it time to reexamine the approach?