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Forbes are reporting on a recent Microsoft Blog post, claiming a 775% increase in Cloud Services uptake from regions that are enforcing social distancing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, there's been a 3x surge in Remote Desktop use and the Number of Teams users has more than doubled to 44 Million since November 2019.
How has your use of on-line meetings changed since the pandemic hit?
takyon: Apparently Microsoft's Claim of 775 Percent Surge in Cloud Services Wasn't Really Accurate
The company has now made a correction, saying that the 775 percent increase was experienced by Microsoft Teams, not all of the cloud offerings, which isn't as surprising since the video calling app generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes daily in a one-week period alone.
As it turns out the figure also only came from Microsoft Teams' users in Italy, where millions of people were put under lockdown. The corrected statement now reads:
"We have seen a 775 percent increase in Teams' calling and meeting monthly users in a one month period in Italy, where social distancing or shelter in place orders have been enforced." - Microsoft
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2020, @06:08AM (4 children)
Just say NO to:
Microsoft
Microsoft Windows
Bill Gates
ID2020
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday March 31 2020, @07:33AM (3 children)
You're a goddamn nigger.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday March 31 2020, @07:49AM
Nah I have seen pictures of Bill. He is like a crusty old white dude. He da man!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2020, @09:37AM
I suppose I glow in the dark, too?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2020, @05:16PM
i think you took his "keepin' it real" a tad too seriously. lol
(Score: 4, Funny) by KritonK on Tuesday March 31 2020, @08:29AM (11 children)
And they know this because...?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Tuesday March 31 2020, @08:51AM (2 children)
And they know this because...?
They don't. Over the last few years it has looked from the outside like M$ is moving more and more of its accounting line items under "cloud" and , specifically, "Azure" in order to give the illusion of growth. There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical but getting real data for or against is all but impossible. Some people have tried to get verifiable data out of M$ shills and public relations executives for a year but only ever get an ad hominem response in return. So my conclusion is that M$ does not have the figures to back up the claims: in other words they are lying again.
M$ learned from the Comes v Microsoft case [groklaw.net], also known as the Iowa case, about letting records become public. Thus the courts won't be able to subpoena records, because M$ work flow is designed to delete them long before the paperwork can be processed to order preservation.
So the long and the short of that, is that there is no reason to trust them and we need to question how they are defining "cloud" and what budgetary line items they are cramming into the category "azure".
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by KritonK on Tuesday March 31 2020, @02:58PM (1 child)
Remote Desktop is not "cloud", but software that allows you to access the desktop of one machine from another, using the Remote Desktop Protocol [wikipedia.org]. Think of it as the Windows equivalent of VNC [wikipedia.org].
Although MS may be making arbitrary claims about increased Remote Desktop usage, it's more likely that they do know, because the remote desktop server and/or client are reporting usage information to Microsoft, and have been doing so for enough time to identify increased usage.
My question was mostly rhetoric.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday March 31 2020, @03:40PM
Of course they themselves are tracking this with great care. Vista10 has telemetry and surveillance down to and including keylogging. One of the questions I raise is how those outside that cult can get at any form of reliable information regarding the numbers. They appear to be going to great lengths to keep those numbers out of reach, so one can infer that none of that is going as well as claimed by them.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stormreaver on Tuesday March 31 2020, @10:59AM (7 children)
Because Windows 10 is the most prolific spyware ever created. Windows 10's built-in keylogger sends every key you press to Microsoft eventually.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2020, @02:44PM (6 children)
While I have no reason to doubt this, it would mean that they are collecting usernames and passwords of everyone. Any proof of this? Any at all?
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Tuesday March 31 2020, @03:17PM
While they could be collecting user names and passwords (there's no way to know), all they need, in order to know that Remote Desktop usage has increased by 775%, is that for every 4 initiated Remote Desktop connections per day before the COVID-19 pandemic, there are now 35.
One could argue that this is anonymous information, but it is not so anonymous. If I suddenly started using Remote Desktop, they know that I'm probably working from home for some company. Coupled with the IP address of the remote desktop server, to which I connected, they can also know which company I'm working for, not to mention that I still have a job, and therefore still have an income to spend on advertised products.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 31 2020, @06:47PM
No, it doesn't mean they need usernames and passwords. It means that when the system logs a remote services protocol event it echoes that event back to MS. Are you saying you need proof that MS collects system data as part of their QI program?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 31 2020, @06:49PM (3 children)
Correction, AC, I see you were responding to the parent.
No, I don't think there is a straight up keylogger. But certainly anything you push through Cortana's oh-so-helpful typing feature makes its way back there. And yes, they do relay the kinds of info they need to make this kind of call I'm sure.
Welcome to 1984.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:13AM (2 children)
A common mistake good people make when dealing with M$ and its employees is that they project their values onto them rather than seeing them for what they are. When dealing with M$, naivety can have harmful consequences:
A key logger is there and M$ Vista 10 has the keylogger enabled by default [privateinternetaccess.com]:
It's an approach they take across the board. Recall their acqusition of Skype? The first thing they did after generally breaking it was to retool it and take it from a peer-to-peer infrastructure to a centralized one. The centralization forces all conversations through a handful of servers in Redmond.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:43AM (1 child)
> Many Windows 10 users are unknowingly sending the contents of every keystroke they make to Microsoft due to an enabled-by-default keylogger.
AND THIS SHIT IS *LEGAL!* Un. fucking. believable.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 01 2020, @06:03AM
I'm not so sure it actually is legal. However, getting any laws enforced against M$ or, especially, a major politician and cult leader like Bill himself is difficult in the best of times. Now with the kakistocracy running at full steam, it will be all but impossible.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday March 31 2020, @12:12PM (2 children)
Can they be more specific about exactly what services people are using?...
Oh, right. "cloud". Cloud cloud cloud, cloudy cloud cloud, in the cloud because cloud.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday March 31 2020, @12:24PM
The specifics are lacking and are probably so unflattering that they will never be revealed on purpose. The claimed increase is probably all resulting from increased use of Hotmail, or whatever it is called lately, behind that, on the long shot that they aren't just plain lying again. Their other stuff seems to have been in decline and even more unreliable. So by elimination that would leave those trying to do remote work or socializing via Hotmail.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 31 2020, @06:49PM
Yes but you need the appy apps to appcloud the cloudy cloud!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 31 2020, @04:15PM
Apparently Microsoft’s Claim of 775 Percent Surge in Cloud Services Wasn’t Really Accurate [wccftech.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2020, @05:19PM
the masses truly are profane!
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:58AM