Podcasts

With more than 30 years of experience covering Microsoft, Directions on Microsoft provides unique perspectives about the shifts in Microsoft technologies, roadmaps and licensing policies that matter most to enterprise-size companies. Twice each month industry veteran Mary Jo Foley interviews a different Directions analyst for informed insights and advice to help you derive full value from your Microsoft investments.

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August 26, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 14 · Duration – 19m Get Ready for Microsoft's Coming Licensing Changes Starting Nov. 1, Microsoft is dropping the programmatic discounts that were baked into its volume-licensing agreements. But price hikes are just one of the resulting fallouts for which enterprises need to prepare immediately, as Directions' lead negotiator Dean Bedwell details in this episode with Mary Jo Foley.

August 8, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 13 · Duration – 23m Is No-Code Really Dead? Is there still a place for no/low-code tools like those in Microsoft's Power Platform with the rise of generative AI and GitHub Copilot? The New Stack's news editor Darryl Taft joins Directions Rob Sanfilippo and Mary Jo Foley to debate the topic.

July 16, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 12 · Duration – 24m The Human Side of Data Governance We've all heard repeatedly about the importance of securing your data estate before implementing Copilots, agents and other AI components. Directions analyst Barry Briggs talks with Mary Jo Foley about what needs to happen among execs, IT and employees on for data governance to really work.

June 26, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 11 · Duration – 36m SQL Server 2025 to Deliver AI Features and Lots More Microsoft is set to release this fall SQL Server 2025, its first new version of its flagship database in three years. Special guest, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Andrew Brust and Directions analyst Andrew Snodgrass detail the AI, performance and other top SQL Server 2025 features in this episode with Mary Jo Foley.