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.

Updated: May 1, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 7 · Duration – 49m Microsoft: A Look Back From Inside This year marks Microsoft's 50th anniversary and several of the Directions analysts were part of the company's history. Barry Briggs, Michael Cherry, and Rob Sanfilippo share some ringside-seat insights with Mary Jo Foley from their years working across different teams and times at Microsoft.

March 28, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 6 · Duration – 33m Understanding Microsoft's AI Strategy Microsoft's repositioning of itself as an AI company has major implications for customers in terms of how you plan, buy, license and manage Microsoft products. Directions analyst Barry Briggs discusses with Mary Jo Foley what enterprises really need to know about Microsoft's AI strategy.

March 14, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 5 · Duration – 22m The Growing Risks of Staying On-Premises While some customers just cannot let go of their on-premises Microsoft products — for legitimate and not-so-valid reasons — the risks of running software on-prem are growing. Directions analyst Andrew Snodgrass talks with Mary Jo Foley about on-premises realities and provides some recommendations.

February 28, 2025 . Season – 4 · Episode – 4 · Duration – 48m The New Face of Shadow IT: A Directions on Microsoft Brainstorm Whether you appreciate it, tolerate it, or want to stamp it out, Shadow IT is not going anywhere. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Directions analysts Barry Briggs, Greg DeMichillie and Rob Sanfilippo share with Mary Jo Foley their ideas for managing and channeling Shadow IT in this roundtable discussion.