Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack how Salesforce is reinventing IT support with its new Agentforce platform.Highlights00:11 — Salesforce has launched Agentforce IT Service. This product suite is described by the company as an agent-first, conversational-first IT support solution. Unlike lengthy back-and-forth interactions with service desk staff, the new system introduces a conversation-based resolution model that’s available 24/7.01:15 — Muddu Sudhakar, SVP and GM, IT and HR Service at Salesforce, said, "The fragmented, legacy ITSM model is fundamentally broken. By building Agentforce IT Service natively on the Salesforce and Service Cloud platform, we are driving a conversation-first, agent-first revolution — with product and technology innovation that transforms IT and HR..."01:43 — Agentforce IT Services represents a significant breakthrough that’s sure to save IT teams hundreds of hours with its unique agent-first, conversation-first approach. Support is instant and personalized. Salesforce has made a remarkable entrance into the ITSM space, making a powerful impact with its unified, agent-driven strategy. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss the recent AWS outage, identifying five reasons that this outage will significantly impact the company's reputation.Highlights00:30 — AWS experienced a big outage this week, impacting multiple companies and services at a time when AWS, relative to its hyperscaler competitors, is in a decline. I think there are five core reasons that its reputation will suffer from this outage.01:15 — The magnitude of the outage will greatly impact the company's reputation. There is an enormous range of business customers directly affected by this, reaching millions of people across multiple industries.01:50 — There's never a "good" time for events like this to occur, but this outage happened at the beginning of the holiday season. In the minds of many business leaders, this season is where they get a large percentage of their annual revenue through online services. With this disaster, can AWS be fully trusted?02:30 — AWS is the slowest-growing hyperscaler. In a vacuum, it reached nearly $31 billion in revenue with a 17.5% growth rate in Q2. However, AWS is growing at a much slower rate compared to its hyperscaler competitors — Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Oracle.03:37 — AWS also has the slowest-growing RPO or backlog. AWS reported its backlog up to 25% to almost $200 billion. Again, in the world of the vacuum, that's terrific. But relative to the others, this wasn't very good at all.04:38 — This outage came at a time when the other hyperscalers are distinguishing themselves with powerful AI strategies and services. AWS has had some AI properties but not at the scale of Microsoft with Copilot and ChatGPT, Google Cloud with the launch of Gemini Enterprise, and Oracle with its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at why a new Harvard-Microsoft licensing deal could be a defining moment for generative AI in medicineHighlights00:11 — Harvard University's Graduate Medical School has entered into a licensing agreement with Microsoft, enabling the company to access consumer health data. Now, Microsoft plans to utilize this wealth of health data to enhance Copilot with health-related content, which many view as part of the company's strategy to reduce its reliance on OpenAI infrastructure.01:06 — Healthcare was one of the first use cases identified for AI, and although Microsoft already has healthcare-focused AI tools, this partnership could provide the most accurate healthcare AI tool for general use cases. This situation represents a widening gap in reliance on OpenAI's large language models. Microsoft is expanding its reach with models developed by other providers.01:53 — But this also poses a threat to any dominance that OpenAI might already have in the healthcare space. ChatGPT is reported to provide sometimes inaccurate responses. While things have undoubtedly improved since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, the reliance on imperfect data can create significant risks. Consequently, Copilot could easily rise to the top spot in this domain. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I talk about recent announcements from Salesforce's Dreamforce event as well as the company's move into new territories.Highlights00:15 — At Salesforce's Dreamforce, Marc Benioff described the event as the biggest one ever. Dreamforce highlighted product announcements, particularly around the Agentforce AI platform, and expanded partnerships.00:30 — One of the most intereseting pieces of this was the new reality of agentic AI with Agentforce and the rise of Salesforce Data Cloud giving the company the opportunity to move beyond the traditional boundaries of CRM into other industries, including supply chain. It's very clear that Salesforce is looking to expand its territory.01:21 — In his keynote, Marc Benioff talked about big customers, including Dell. The customer company had been facing major challenges and turned to Salesforce to overcome, modernize, and incorporate more automation and intelligence to make better decisions. So, Dell has been working with Salesforce Supply Chain which came through the acquistion of Regrello. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I share Larry Ellison’s bold vision of the AI market as the biggest in history — and how Oracle plans to lead it.Highlights00:14 — Well, this is my final report here from Oracle AI World in Las Vegas. At the Financial Analyst Meeting yesterday, Oracle unveiled some truly extraordinary numbers. It said that by fiscal year 2030, its revenue is going to grow from $57 billion, about a 4x increase over that period. The strategy it has for that is "AI Everywhere."01:24 — Here are the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) growth numbers: FY25 (just completed as of May 31): $10 billion. FY26: $15 billion. FY27: $34 billion. FY28: $77 billion. FY29: $129 billion. FY30: $166 billion. That growth, plus its applications business and its traditional business totals up to the $225 billion goal.03:39 — It's also got the database business. Powered by the AI revolution and demand for the AI database 26AI, it believes its database business could reach $20 billion by FY30. Larry Ellison even said it’s possible that the multi-cloud portion could contribute almost that much during this time. It’s a mix of technology, strategy, timing, hard work, and talent that’s brought Oracle to this point.04:19 — Clay Magouyrk, one of the two new CEOs at Oracle, said Oracle now has 700 AI infrastructure customers and that it’s growing extremely rapidly. “I believe the average deal size for those customers is $67 million,” he said. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

 AI opportunities: Despite the excitement around AI, Kaupp emphasizes the importance of understanding the technology before fully integrating it into workflows. He advocates for “literacy before agency" to understand the true impacts of what AI "can unlock."Transformation with AI: Kaupp describes the process of transforming a contract approval process using AI tools, highlighting the importance of identifying inefficiencies and becoming “client zero” for automation. He poses a question relating to assisting customers with AI adoption: “If I can't identify 'stupid' things that we're living with and transforming them, how am I going to get clients to do that?”Internal impacts: Microsoft's release of all Microsoft Learn content as an MCP server has led to an important internal transformation for ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert, enabling consultants and developers to use AI-powered search instead of traditional engines to quickly find relevant functionality and updates. This approach has also been applied to the organization's own codebase, allowing access to previous customer implementations.Big trends for Business Central: Across all Microsoft products, and in the case of Business Central, Kaupp shares that clients are excited about the potential of AI agents, but many are still experimenting without clear use cases. As a result, he notes, consultants often find themselves reversing client-built solutions to make them production-ready.ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert at Summit NA: Kaupp and the team from ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert will be at Community Summit NA 2025, and you can connect with the team at their Booth #1007. Kaupp will also co-lead a session on Wednesday, October 22, "Leading Through Change: Harnessing Communication and Resilience." He encourages attendees to stop by the booth and chat with him on all things AI. "I'm there to learn or to guide... to me, that is the benefit of the community. It's the benefit of why we're all there," he notes.Contributors: John Siefert, Greg KauppSearch keywords:  No transcript Can be scheduled for 9:00 AM ET on 10/17.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I dive into Oracle’s bold AI-driven transformation and its stunning forecast to reach $225 billion in annual revenue by 2030, powered by explosive OCI and multi-cloud growth.Highlights00:12 — As we wrap things up here at Oracle AI world, we had the financial analyst meeting. Oracle's Principal Financial Officer Doug Kehring revealed that Oracle has raised its revenue projections again for the future, and says that they will hit the astonishing total of $225 billion in total revenue for fiscal year 30.00:52 — This was one of the most dynamic, interesting Oracle events I've ever been to. So when I talk about them being on fire, it's powered by their hyper growth OCI business. But it goes beyond that to what they're doing across the board and the AI Revolution really kicking in. It's why Larry Ellison pivoted the entire company to integrate AI in everything that they do.01:55 — The company's two new CEOs, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, along with Larry Ellison, repeated throughout the event: "There's no limitation on us about demand. We have more demand by far than we can handle. We are supply-constrained. And they revealed a lot of plans about all the things Oracle is doing to be able to overcome that capacity constraint."02:21 — So, it is not just OpenAI. They talked about how the RPO, which when they released their numbers a few weeks ago, that is for the quarter ending August 31, their RPO was $455 billion in just the six or seven weeks since that quarter ended, that RPO is now over $500 billion. So again, it was not just the big deal with OpenAI.04:25 — We'll have more coming up next week. I'll go into more detail about this. But part of what was so interesting at this financial analyst meeting today, Larry Ellison talked said: "What about in the areas of like plant genomes?" Larry Ellison wove together the ideas of how this new Oracle Database along with the Oracle AI Data Platform is going to make that possible. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

O of elevaite365, leads a company at the forefront of AI-driven test automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365. With decades of hands-on experience in ERP implementations, he and his team built elevaite365 to solve the challenges of constant change, complexity, and testing inefficiencies in enterprise software. In this episode, Magnus joins John Siefert to define a new category, AI-powered test automation, and explore how it’s transforming implementation success, business agility, and the future of cloud ERP systems.Reimagining ERP with AIThe Big Themes:AI Test Automation Is a New Software Category: AI test automation not just a better version of traditional testing, it’s an entirely new approach. With frequent updates, integrations, and customizations, ERP systems outgrow static methods. Platforms like elevaite365 define a future where testing is adaptive, autonomous, and business-aligned. This shift changes how organizations approach quality assurance, transforming it from a back-end task into a front-line innovation enabler.AI Testing Drives Tangible Business Outcomes: The shift to AI-powered QA isn’t just a technical improvement—it delivers real business value. Perri and Siefert explore outcomes like faster go-lives, lower project costs, reduced QA workload, and quicker time-to-value. These results matter to senior executives, who face mounting pressure to drive both innovation and efficiency. Elevaite365’s platform supports these goals by automating repetitive tasks, reducing errors, and scaling effortlessly. What used to be a cost center (testing) is now a growth lever.AI Test Automation Builds Ecosystem-Wide Agility: AI testing isn’t just about IT: It transforms the entire enterprise ecosystem. When testing improves, so does everything connected to it: systems integration, customer experience, compliance, internal workflows, and delivery speed. The agility gained through elevaite365 extends beyond QA teams. It empowers cross-functional teams to move faster and take more calculated risks.The Big Quote: “What truly sets elevaite365 apart isn’t just that it’s faster or more robust… it’s that we eliminate the typical roadblocks—there are no limits on users, scripts, or environments." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I share insights from Chris Pope on how automation can boost morale, reduce costs, and accelerate delivery.Highlights00:02 — Today's episode is brought to you by AutomatePro, a ServiceNow partner. They want to talk about a new product they have that is helping to change the software development lifecycle. AutomatePro Chief Product Officer Chris Pope recently spoke with my colleague Kieron Allen, and I wanted to highlight some of the key parts of that.00:43 — They said they try to automate some of this drudgery and the mundane work. That’s in areas like testing, documentation. It’s not stuff that talented developers want to be doing — though it’s a central part of the process. So when AutomatePro steps in and says, “Hey, we can take care of that for you,” it allows those highly skilled developers to move on to more meaningful work.01:18 — The benefits of what AutomatePro does in working with the ServiceNow platform: they accelerate the process, they boost employee morale — which is so important today — and especially this ability to lower cost. It was a key point that Chris made a number of times in the conversation with Kieron: AutomatePro helps to augment humans, not replace them.02:10 — So, he said, "We meet people where they're already working." He said that could be in a native state, through a portal, or through any other part of the process. Ultimately, what that allows is — he said, “Wherever the developers are working, we’re there — where the developer already is and is already working.”03:06 — This reflects the powerful ecosystem that ServiceNow has been intent on building for the last several years. So we see these Cloud Wars Top 10 companies, like ServiceNow, have an enormous range of capability. But, as each frequently says, “We can't do everything,” and we're counting on partners like AutomatePro to step in and be able to add significant value.03:34 — One: it lowers costs. Two: it accelerates software development. Three: it improves morale. And it does so while augmenting what humans do — rather than replacing humans. Very interesting.Check out the full interview between Kieron Allen and Chris Pope. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Kieron Allen speaks with Chris Pope, Chief Product Officer at AutomatePro, in an in-depth discussion that is part of a broader series of podcasts, articles, and reports on ServiceNow’s evolving ecosystem. They explore how intelligent automation and agentic AI are reshaping DevOps and quality assurance. The conversation also highlights how AutomatePro’s built-on approach enhances developer productivity, reduces risk, and ensures security, all within the ServiceNow environment.AutomatePro’s AI EdgeThe Big ThemesAutomatePro’s Core Mission: AutomatePro focuses on solving one of the most time-consuming parts of software delivery: testing and documentation. Pope explains that their goal isn't to replace humans but to augment their efforts through intelligent automation. By embedding deeply within the ServiceNow platform, AutomatePro allows developers and platform owners to automate repetitive tasks early in the development cycle, ensuring higher-quality releases and faster deployment.Human-AI Collaboration Wins: The myth of AI replacing people is outdated. Pope reframes the conversation: it’s not about replacement, it’s about enablement. The real winners will be those who know how to use AI effectively. Today’s Copilots are context-aware, learning from human behavior and adapting to different personas — whether it's a developer, analyst, or HR owner. Prompt engineering is emerging as a vital skill, and the better the prompt, the better the AI-driven output.DevOps Innovation Without Compromise: AutomatePro and ServiceNow are reshaping DevOps by making speed and quality compatible. Historically, faster releases meant riskier ones. With AutomatePro’s intelligent testing automation, that tradeoff no longer exists. Frequent, smaller releases — the “fixed forward” model — are now safer thanks to early automation, embedded security, and contextual AI. Pope argues that platform owners and developers are the new heroes in enterprise IT, and equipping them with Copilots, intelligent workflows, and instant feedback loops unlocks untapped value.The Big Quote: "You're not going to be replaced by AI per se, you're going to be replaced by someone that knows how to use AI effectively."More from ServiceNow and AutomatePro:Follow AutomatePro on LinkedIn or learn more about ServiceNow and intelligent automation. Visit Cloud Wars for more.