TOP STORIES #89
The biggest news of the week is the price increases Microsoft has announced for next year and the inability to renew with Teams - now extra. Also, customers under 2400 seats will not be able to renew their Enterprise Agreements, which will make it more complicated. Read more below.
The hype around CES 2025 is already starting with lots of speculation on what is going to be announced, with the most anticipated announcement being the launch of the 5000 series GPU's - Nvidia will be giving the Keynote, so I think the 5000 Series GPU's will be announced.
You can find last week's TOP STORIES #88 here
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Hardware
Ultrawide Displays coming to AppleVision Pro
Looking for a mega-sized 10K display? Soon, Apple users will be able to project their MAC screen on the AR headset at 10K resolution! You can read more about this here,
This is the first time the size and quality of the display will exceed anything you can get from a "normal" type of display.
Huawei has developed its own 72TB storage system.
As the company is restricted from obtaining high-end HDDs from American companies, it has embarked on developing its own storage solutions that can replace HDDs. A very interesting development is it's MED technology, which you can read more about here and is more power efficient than HDD's.
Please contact your First Technology account manager to learn more about this and other Storage solutions from Huawei.
Microsoft
Power BI Price increase
Microsoft is increasing the price of Power BI Pro licenses to $14 per user per month from $10 per user per month. Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) licenses will cost $24 per user per month, up from $20 per user per month. This price increase will be effective from April 1, 2025, and will apply globally to new and existing commercial customers. You can read more here.
Price Hikes for M365
In addition to the price increase for Power BI, Microsoft will increase prices by 5% for M365, D365, Teams Phone and other products. Additionally, you will have the option to pay for CoPilot monthly, but also with a 5% price increase, and of course Power BI. You can read all about these increases here.
If your agreement is coming up for renewal in the next 8 months, it is REALLY important that you sit down with our licensing specialists to review your options, as you many not be able to renew your agreement "as is" - reviewing what to do next and making sure you are getting the very best value proposition from Microsoft can get quite tricky. Please contact your account manager to put you in touch with our specialists to review your options.
You will not be able to renew your EA!
Directions on Microsoft has published a blog explaining how Microsoft will start moving companies off Enterprise agreements and over to MCA-E and/or CSP agreements. It looks like companies with less than 2400 users are going to be moved for sure and be in for a bunch of unwelcome surprises, one of them is discovering that your renewal excludes Teams, which will now cost extra.
As I have already implored above, PLEASE reach out to your First Technology account manager to connect you with our specialists to help you review your options, to ensure you are getting the best value proposition from Microsoft going forward because if you do nothing and DON'T prepare you are guaranteed to have a significant price increase for your renewal - it is better to be prepared. Even companies that are bigger than 2399 seats are also not immune to some of the changes. Just changing from monthly to annual billing or vice versa can result in an expensive surprise!
Security
EMails abusing Exchange spoofing flaw
Microsoft has disclosed a vulnerability in exchange servers that allows the bad guys to impersonate legitimate senders, making malicious messages more credible. Exchange servers will now flash up a warning that an email may be dodgy. It is really important to make sure your Exchange servers are up to date, and users are educated on what to look out for and to take warnings seriously. Please contact your First Technology account manager to put you in touch with our Exchange specialists and ensure your user awareness training is current.
Daisy, the AI Grandma keeps scammers busy
71% of people in the UK would like to get their own back on scammers. O2 has created an AI that keeps scammers busy on meandering calls that go nowhere, preventing them from using the time to scam real people.
It is important to note that South Africa is not immune to scam calls, dating scams and other nasty stuff. Please take a moment to educate your less tech-savvy relatives to be careful. This also serves as a reminder to ensure your awareness training of your users never lets up. Please contact your First Technology Account manager to arrange for up-to-date awareness training on how to spot the bad guys!
Microsoft Visio Files is used to carry out phishing attacks.
Just when you think you are well protected from being attacked, another way is found by the bad guys to steal your credentials to launch phishing attacks. Companies are being targeted worldwide, so it is important to be alert against being tricked into clicking a link that you should not. You can read more about how this attack plays out here.
As with the previous story, please contact your First Technology Account manager to arrange for up-to-date awareness training on how to spot the bad guys!
Cloud & AI
Sam says AGI by 2030, Anthropic disagrees
The rate of technological progress is not letting up, it is possibly speeding up even more. It is mindblowing to think that we may even achieve AGI (given it is flexible definition) as early as 2027! you can read more about this here.
We are in for one hell of a ride for the next 5 years - beyond that - you can only imagine.....
With the breakneck acceleration in AI capability, it is more important than ever to make sure you are, at the very least, preparing your company for the deployment of AI to allow employees to start experimenting with AI to enhance what they do. Please contact your First Technology AM to connect you with our specialists to start preparing your business for AI - it is inevitable.
What's up at FTG
CoPilot Security Demo
BUI, FTG's security division, can present CoPilot for Security information-sharing sessions, workshops and demos.
In light of ongoing attacks like those discussed above, it is essential to contact your First Tech Group account manager to make arrangements to attend a session, or you can request a session here.
What does a World Class SoC look like and how does it work?
You are invited to book a tour of one of our SoC (Security Operations Center) nodes (and there are still parts we can't show you). You can book for the tour here.
BUI blog - 3rd Video Available
FTG's Azure and security division, BUI, has launched a blog focused on Security—what's new, what changed, and what you need to do to maintain a sound security posture. This one, however, is about a game that Dirk learnt about while attending Black Hat in Vegas.
All BUI videos have been moved to one YouTube channel, which you can find here.
The Security Blog Video #003 is now available to view here.
This video introduces you to KC7 - a Cyberdetective game!:
Movies
Now Playing: Gladiator 2 - looks to be quite an epic
Now Playing: Hydan
22 November: Absolution
22 November: Wicked Part 1
22 November: Arthur's Whiskey
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