Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

• Microsoft Ignite: Renowned Futurists Map Out the Next Era of Enterprise AI Success

  In today's Cloud Wars Agent and Copilot Minute, I look at how screen-aware Copilots, task-based agents, and multimodal interfaces are reshaping enterprise work — and why identity, permissions, and access guardrails now matter more than ever.Highlights00:30 — Two experts, Brian Madden, Vice President and Field Technology Officer and Futurist at Citrix, and Marco Casalaina, Vice President of Products, Core AI and an AI Futurist at Microsoft, hosted a session at this year's Microsoft Ignite conference titled “Develop Your Enterprise Playbook to Prepare for the AI of Tomorrow.”00:58 — I want to share some key takeaways. Madden laid out a seven-stage roadmap for human–AI collaboration. Steps included simple prompt and paste, the first introduction to AI; next, AI as an analyst for colleagues; followed by AI watching your screen; AI using your computer for you; AI using your computer without you watching; multi-agent AI communication; and the final step: AI-orchestrated work.01:55 — Ultimately, AI needs to work where human knowledge workers work, because the world we live in today is built for humans, and the way that AI will succeed is by operating within this user space and emulating humans in practice. Users talk to AI, and AI talks to the applications and workflows on behalf of the user.02:34 — The discussion moved on to the notion of apps dissolving into data, ultimately AI talking directly to the data without going through an application. Casalaina demonstrated this by running Anthropic’s Claude on Azure and giving it the skills to create a PowerPoint. It did — without using PowerPoint. It made the slides in HTML and then converted them without ever opening the PowerPoint application. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• Hottest in Cloud/AI: Palantir #1, Google Cloud #2, Oracle #3

  In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I reveal how Palantir leapfrogged the competition with 63% cloud growth, shaking up the Cloud Wars Top 10.Highlights00:14 — Periodically, I do an update on what I call the Cloud Wars Growth Chart. The latest list shows that Palantir — new to the Cloud Wars Top 10 — is number one in fastest growth, by a long shot. Google Cloud, which for the last six quarters had been the fastest growing, is now in the number two spot. Oracle comes in at number three.01:06 — So let’s see here: Palantir — look at this — 63% growth to $1.12 billion. Previous quarter growth rate: 48%. Pretty nice when you can go from 48% to 63% in a market like this. So the question is: What is Palantir doing that has allowed them to grow at these dramatically higher growth rates?02:05 — Number two, Google Cloud. 34% growth to $15.2 billion. That’s an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 32% growth. The third: Oracle. 28% growth, $7.2 billion in cloud revenue — up from 27%. SAP grew 27% in Q3, $6.14 billion. Previously 28%. Then Microsoft grew 26% in cloud revenue to $49.1 billion for the quarter, down from the previous quarter’s growth rate of 27%.03:07 — We saw growth throughout the Cloud Wars Top 10. Six of the nine that report their cloud revenue said that they are seeing accelerating growth from one quarter ago to their most recent quarter. So six out of nine growth rates going up, even as they're getting bigger. Now the outlier there is IBM, which does not break out its cloud revenue.03:47 — The other big thing I see coming along is that we are moving into a place now where it’s becoming fuzzy between cloud and AI. Because cloud, after all, is the delivery vehicle that has made AI now something accessible to every individual in the world.04:40 — So, we see these sort of intertwined, bonded pairs of cloud and AI. It’s been fascinating to watch this. And these growth rates show the market is getting hotter. These companies are growing faster — for the most part — remarkable. So, hats off to Palantir, Google Cloud, Oracle, and all the others on this list. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• Workday's Acquisition of Sana Delivers AI-Enabled Knowledge Access to Customers

  In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss Workday's acquisition of the enterprise knowledge and learning platform provider Sana, and what it means for customers.Highlights0:05 — Now,the understanding of the capabilities of LLMs has seeped from discussions among in-the-know business leaders into the general public. Personally, I don't know anyone who hasn't tried ChatGPT at least once. However, when it comes to leveraging LLMs and their associated technologies in a business context, it all comes down to the data that you can provide.0:34 — Essentially, it's about making internal knowledge useful. This combination of business data and LLMs is the golden ticket for companies that want to thrive in the AI Revolution. There are some standout examples of companies making that possible. One such company is Sana. Now, Workday has announced that it has completed its acquisition of Sana.01:17 — Gerrit Kazmaier, President Product & Technology at Workday, explained: "By bringing Sana's leading enterprise knowledge and learning to Workday, we're creating a single intelligent interface...We're unlocking a new era of productivity, focus and flow across our customers, organizations with a complete AI solution for the next generation enterprise."01:46 — Kazmaier is describing the combination of Sana's enterprise knowledge tools and Workday's unified cloud platform and formidable partner ecosystem. The vision is to create what Workday calls a "horizontal intelligence layer" across the enterprise. Within this layer, users will have access to deeply personalized experiences.02:34 — Now, as I've discussed many times before, cutting through the noise to identify the specific features, capabilities, data, sources and outcomes that a user needs is essential for thriving in this increasingly competitive, AI-enabled business environment. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: Stoneridge Software's Eric Newell Shares Community Summit Takeaways, Future of AI Adoption

  In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, John Siefert is joined by Eric Newell, CEO, Stoneridge Software, while on-site at Community Summit North America 2025, which took place October 19-23. Newell shares his takeaways from the conference, and what he expects the future of AI adoption to look like over the next 12-18 months.Key TakeawaysSummit NA buzz: Newell notes the prominence of AI and agents at Summit NA 2025. More specifically, the CRM Product Roadmap session highlighted the transformative potential of agents, though he explains that many clients are unsure how to implement them and bridge the gap. Summit is a unique place that enables attendees to address pain points by connecting them with vendors and peers who offer practical solutions.Stoneridge Software's presence: During the event, the Stoneridge Software team was focused on supporting clients’ objectives through sessions and networking. The organization also participated in the GP to BC preconference, where the team is seeing "more movement in them going from GP to BC... helping them get there has been fun," he adds.Looking ahead: As referenced during the CRM Product Roadmap session, Newell suggests that a demo which showcased the integrated agents for customer service, including automated knowledge base creation, will accelerate CRM cloud adoption and significantly boost Microsoft’s future growth. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• Elevaite365 Test Automation Turns Testing into a Strategic Advantage

  In today's podcast, John Siefert sits down with Magnus Perri, CEO, elevaite365 Test Automation, and Michael Catterall, Product Lead, elevaite365 Test Automation, to unpack how AI is redefining testing in Dynamics 365 projects. They discuss why manual testing overwhelms business users, how elevaite365 Test Automation's platform automates and adapts with AI, and how a community-driven script library accelerates implementation. It's test automation built for real-world complexity and speed.AI Testing, Real ResultsThe Big Themes:Testing Stress: Perri points out a systemic flaw in ERP and Dynamics 365 implementations: the burden of testing often lands on business users whose primary roles have nothing to do with quality assurance. This leads to rushed efforts, incomplete coverage, and high error rates. The fundamental issue isn’t lack of diligence, it’s misalignment. Elevaite365 Test Automation directly addresses this by reducing or eliminating the need for manual testing.Insight and Resilience Layers: Catterall describes how elevaite365 Test Automation's platform doesn’t just mimic human testers, it enhances them. Once a user records a business process, the system converts it into a reusable, repeatable automated test. But what sets elevaite365 Test Automation apart is what happens next: It adds AI-powered layers that detect anomalies like incorrect field values, unexpected pop-ups, and subtle error messages that human testers often miss. This isn’t basic scripting, it’s intelligent validation that keeps evolving.AI Testing Brings Measurable ROI: While much of the conversation covered process pain and automation theory, the real value becomes evident in customer results. Elevaite365 Test Automation isn’t just a nice-to-have, it delivers real ROI. Customers using the platform have reduced their testing cycles from weeks to hours, lowered defect rates in production, and significantly cut the manpower required for UAT (User Acceptance Testing). Because the tool is embedded in real Dynamics 365 workflows, it provides test coverage for processes that actually matter like purchasing, invoicing, inventory, and more.The Big Quote: "Testing is always falling onto the business users, not IT department ... so you go into testing and you're stressed, you have a lot to do. You're thinking about talking to the next supplier, and while you're doing that, you work through the testing as fast as you can, and you might miss stuff." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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