Citrix Parent, Microsoft Go Big — $1.65 Billion Big — on Generative AI
Cloud Software Group, via Citrix, has committed to spending $1.65 billion. Plus, Accenture and Google have AI deals, as do McKinsey and Google Cloud.
![Generative AI: CSG and Microsoft Generative AI: CSG and Microsoft](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt09d3e53909ec17e0/6537c874e62e3f511c5e7fa3/Generative-AI-2.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Gunay Rahimova/Shutterstock
Citrix parent Cloud Software Group just inked an eight-year partnership with Microsoft around generative AI.
The alliance marks an expansion of their work together — this time, with burgeoning demand for AI in mind.
As such, CSG has committed to spending $1.65 billion on Microsoft Azure and its generative AI capabilities. To do that, the companies have laid out a detailed plan.
First, CSG, via Citrix, will act as Microsoft’s preferred global Azure partner solution for enterprise desktop as a service when collaborating with joint Azure customers. In turn, Citrix will use Azure as its preferred cloud platform (hence the $1.65 billion commitment) for hosting customers. Along the way, the companies will deliver tailored support and solutions, and new cloud and AI options, to end users relying on both brands. And, they added, their partnership will pave the way for even more procurement options through Azure Marketplace.
There is more, though.
Cloud Software Group’s engineering organizations are deploying GitHub Copilot to increase developer productivity by more than 20%. CSG says that will accelerate its R&D innovation. Then, Spotfire, another CSG business unit, is embedding its new Copilot extension built on Azure OpenAI to its customers. Finally, CSG is moving all employees to Microsoft 365, which runs on Azure.
Channel partners will experience the trickle-down effects of the CSG-Microsoft efforts in the solutions that emerge from the deal.
"This announcement signifies a significant joint commitment by both Microsoft and Citrix to support our partners with the technology, tools, resources and incentives necessary to empower our mutual customers with an unparalleled solution to deliver applications and desktops in the cloud,” Ethan Fitzsimons, global head of channels at Citrix, told Channel Futures.
In the immediate future, look for changes aimed at making life simpler for end users, per Citrix.
“The simplification of our new Universal and Cloud Platform licensing, which brings together all of our capabilities, including NetScaler, will make our joint solutions with Microsoft much easier for customers to consume and deploy,” said Hector Lima, chief revenue officer at Citrix.
Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, agreed.
![Microsoft's Judson Althoff Microsoft's Judson Althoff](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltdecc5ef2b977dd48/660f1b9593ffb4bb7a1c7bd6/Althoff_Judson_Microsoft_2024.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Microsoft's Judson Althoff
“With Microsoft 365 as its collaboration platform and Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud solution, Citrix is well positioned to deliver transformative solutions for our mutual customers at scale," said Althoff.
The next AI-centric deal comes from Accenture Federal Services and Google Public Sector.
These government-focused entities just launched a Data & Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence. It’ll support federal agencies tasked with modernizing citizen services by deploying solutions around Google Cloud generative AI technologies.
“The ability to use optimal large language models to synthesize, analyze, and contextualize data in a responsible and ethical way offers boundless opportunities for the federal government to jump-start new capabilities and transform their operations,” said John Goodman, CEO of Accenture Federal Services.
![Accenture's John Goodman Accenture's John Goodman](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt71eea85794b0054f/660f1c12bb308449f9427454/Goodman_John_Accenture_Federal_Services_2024.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Accenture's John Goodman
Given that the Center will handle extremely sensitive data, it will meet regulatory standards for security, the companies said. It will house AI experts and provide access to Google's language models, Vertex AI platform, and AI-optimized infrastructure. Clients also will be able to use Google Cloud’s AI-powered code generation tools for software development.
Last year, Accenture Federal Services and Google Public Sector started the Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. Their parent companies, Accenture and Google, have partnered since 2018.
Finally, while not directly channel-related, consulting behemoth McKinsey & Company just beefed up its partnership with Google Cloud around generative AI.
McKinsey, which runs a research arm, forecasts that generative AI and cloud technologies hold $4 trillion in untapped value. So it’s collaborating with Google Cloud on a variety of projects to help clients grow more productive and efficient through AI.
“When Google Cloud technology is combined with McKinsey’s industry expertise, technology delivery experience and capability-building, it creates a powerful partnership able to help businesses shape, mobilize and orchestrate large-scale, tech-enabled transformations,” said Bob Sternfels, McKinsey's global managing partner.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, made a similar comment.
![Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blte8b4c6e0081ee037/65244c7690c545b3a544e127/Kurian-Thomas_Google-Cloud.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian
“Generative AI can transform organizations by increasing workforce productivity, accelerating developer velocity, and streamlining business operations,” Kurian said. “[C]lients will now be better positioned to successfully scope and optimize their generative AI projects.”
Finally, while not directly channel-related, consulting behemoth McKinsey & Company just beefed up its partnership with Google Cloud around generative AI.
McKinsey, which runs a research arm, forecasts that generative AI and cloud technologies hold $4 trillion in untapped value. So it’s collaborating with Google Cloud on a variety of projects to help clients grow more productive and efficient through AI.
“When Google Cloud technology is combined with McKinsey’s industry expertise, technology delivery experience and capability-building, it creates a powerful partnership able to help businesses shape, mobilize and orchestrate large-scale, tech-enabled transformations,” said Bob Sternfels, McKinsey's global managing partner.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, made a similar comment.
![Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blte8b4c6e0081ee037/65244c7690c545b3a544e127/Kurian-Thomas_Google-Cloud.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian
“Generative AI can transform organizations by increasing workforce productivity, accelerating developer velocity, and streamlining business operations,” Kurian said. “[C]lients will now be better positioned to successfully scope and optimize their generative AI projects.”
The tech sector is agog over the ever-increasing opportunities it’s creating around generative AI, but are end users as excited?
This week, two separate articles have published, challenging the value of generative AI, even as big-name companies roll out more partnership announcements around the technology.
“Increasingly, generative AI seems like a waste of our collective time and money,” wrote Kean Birch, director of the Institute for Technoscience & Society at York University in Canada, for The Globe and Mail.
To be sure, the question of generative AI’s value lingers throughout the indirect channel, too. Not all partners are convinced the super-hot technology is for them. For one thing, there’s not always a clear revenue outcome attached. For another, partners have to offer clear differentiators around their generative AI versus, say, a Google Gemini or Microsoft OpenAI.
Indeed, Inc. just issued an article positioned around that very idea.
One area where generative AI likely will prove most useful for partners lies in customer service, if the CEO of Dynatrace, interviewed for the piece, is on target. But those chatbots can be very hit-or-miss, as Rick McConnell points out to Inc., so the caution to partners is to develop those tools with extreme accuracy. Otherwise, end users will leave out of frustration. McConnell himself has done just that. One generative AI chatbot experience, he told Inc., “went so badly that I will never do business with the company again.”
We say all that as more announcements emerge this week touting new generative AI partnerships. Look for deals between Cloud Software Group, the parent company of Citrix, and Microsoft, as well as more between Accenture and Google, and McKinsey & Company and Google Cloud.
Again, though, while technology providers themselves are over the moon about generative AI, it’s incumbent upon channel partners to make sure their customers feel the same rather than forcing solutions upon them. Some organizations just aren’t ready to put the time, people and money into generative AI. Others need the technology now, recognize that and are willing to take the risks to implement it.
Channel Futures’ point simply is this: While generative AI holds much promise, it’s not for everyone and it’s the partner’s job to sift through the noise for clients and recommend the right approaches accordingly. Don’t let vendors pressure you or the customers who trust you into adopting something that might, as Birch wrote, waste time and money.
See our slideshow for AI-related cloud computing news from Cloud Software Group, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Accenture and more.
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